r  26  1995 


COPY  ADDED 

ORIGINAL  TO  BE 
RETAINED 


m 


CZAR  NICHOLAS. 


RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY 


IN 


THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


BY 


ELIZABETH   VVORMELEY   LATIMER 

AUTHOR  OF  "FRANCE  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY,"  "ENGLAND  IN 
THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY,"  "EUROPE  IN  AFRICA  IN  THE  NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY,"  "  ITALY  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CEN- 
TURY," "SPAIN  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY," 
"  MY    SCRAP-BOOK    OF    THE    FRENCH 
REVOLUTION,"  ETC. 


SIXTH    ED (lIOH 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1903 


COPYRIGHT 
BY  A.  C.  MCCLURG  AND  Co. 

A.D.    1893 


NOTE 

THE  kindness  with  which  "France  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century"  has  been  received  by  my  critics 
and  the  public  encourages  me  to  put  forth  this 
companion  volume  on  "  Russia  and  Turkey."  It 
was  composed  under  the  same  circumstances  as 
"  France,"  and  if  it  shall  be  found  to  have  appro- 
priated too  freely  what  belongs  to  other  writers  I 
make  for  it  the  same  apology. 

E.  W.  L. 

HOWARD  COUNTY,  MARYLAND. 
September,  1893. 


252613 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  I.  AND  MADAME 

DE  KRUDENER 9 

II.    THE  GRAND  DUKE  CONSTANTINE  AND  JANETTA 

GRUDZINSKA 26 

III.  THE  CRESCENT  VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM     ...  42 

IV.  TURKS,  RUSSIANS,  AND  GREEKS 63 

V.    THE  CZAR  NICHOLAS 85 

VI.    THE  CRIMEAN  WAR 103 

VII.    THE  CRIMEAN  WAR  (concluded} 134 

VIII.    THE  EMPEROR- LIBERATOR  AND  HIS  REFORMS  .  167 

IX.     FOUR   SULTANS 197 

X.    THE  TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  — GENERAL  SKO- 

BELEFF 232 

XL    THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  II.      .    .  265 

XII.    ALEXANDER  III 282 

XIII.  SIBERIA. — CENTRAL  ASIA.— THE  BALTIC  PROV- 

INCES.— THE  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  JEWS  303 

XIV.  SULTAN  ABDUL  HAMID 335 

XV.    THE  TWO  DANUBIAN  KINGDOMS.  —  SERVIA  AND 

ROUMANIA 357 

XVI.    THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES  381 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CZAR  NICHOLAS Frontispiece 

EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  I To  face  page  16 

MADAME  DE  KRUDENER 24 

GRAND  DUKE  CONST ANTINE 40 

LORD  RAGLAN 112 

MARSHAL  SAINT-ARNAUD 124 

GENERAL  TODLEBEN 134 

FLORENCE  NIGHTINGALE 148 

EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  II 168 

SULTAN  ABDUL  Aziz 200 

SULTAN  MURAD  V 214 

SULTAN  ABDUL  HAMID  II 230 

GENERAL  SKOBELEFF 258 

EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  III 282 

EMPRESS  OF  RUSSIA 300 

MIDHAT  PASHA 336 

KING  MILAN  OF  SERVIA 364 

QUEEN  NATHALIE 368 

KING  CHARLES  OF  ROUMANIA 374 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ROUMANIA 376 

PRINCE  FERDINAND  OF  ROUMANIA 378 

PRINCESS  MARIE 380 

PRINCE  FERDINAND  OF  BULGARIA 400 


RUSSIA    AND    TURKEY 

IN 

THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   EMPEROR   ALEXANDER   I.    AND   MADAME   DE    KRUDENER. 

OOMEBODY  has  said  of  Russia  that  it  is  the  most 
^  extraordinary  country  on  the  globe,  in  the  four  most 
important  particulars  of  empire  :  its  history,  its  extent,  its 
population,  and  its  power.  It  has  risen  into  importance 
only  since  the  early  part  of  the  last  century,  and  ever  since 
it  began  to  rise  it  has  been  the  cause  of  continual  alarm 
to  Western  Europe.  All  international  efforts  have  been 
directed  toward  thwarting  its  schemes  of  aggression,  and 
to  the  repression  of  its  "  manifest  destiny,"  yet  it  has  held 
the  balance  of  power  in  its  hands  in  almost  every  crisis  of 
modem  European  history. 

Peter  the  Great,  who  flourished  at  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  in  the  dawn  of  the  eighteenth,  was  not 
the  reformer  or  restorer  of  Russia,  he  was  its  creator.  He 
found  it  Asiatic,  he  left  it  European,  —  a  work  for  which 
Panslavist  fanatics  at  the  present  day  are  by  no  means 
grateful. 

In  the  days  of  the  Vikings  Russia  had  been  more  or  less 
connected  with  the  Norsemen.  Its  chief  kingdom,  whose 
seat  of  empire  was  at  Novgorod,  was  a  settlement  of  North- 
men, whence  Harold  Hardrada  (killed  in  England,  1066, 


:  fGJ;  •   RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

three  weeks  before  the  battle  of  Hastings)  brought  home 
to  Norway  Elizabeth,  its  king's  daughter,  as  his  bride. 

The  kingdom  of  Novgorod  was  overturned  by  invading 
Tartars,  and  little  more  was  heard  in  Europe  of  Muscovy 
until  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  Captain  Sir  Richard 
Chancelor,  seeking  the  Northeastern  Passage,  wandered 
into  the  White  Sea,  and  was  thence  conducted  to  the  bar- 
baric court  of  Ivan  the  Terrible.  That  formidable  monarch 
received  Chancelor  at  Moscow,  "  seated  on  a  very  royal 
throne,"  having  upon  his  head  a  diadem  of  gold ;  "  his 
robe  was  all  of  goldsmith's  work,"  in  his  hand  "he  bore  a 
crystal  sceptre,  garnished  and  beset  with  precious  stones, 
and  his  countenance  was  no  less  full  of  majesty."  Upon 
one  side  of  his  throne  stood  his  chief  scrivener,  and  upon 
the  other  the  great  "  commander  of  silence,"  or  court  usher, 
in  costly  dresses  of  cloth  of  gold.  Around  the  chamber 
were  seated  his  council  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  noblemen, 
"  upon  high  seats,  all  clad  as  richly." 

Having  presented  letters  from  King  Edward  VI.,  which 
were  received  most  graciously,  Chancelor  and  his  officers 
were  invited  to  dine  with  the  Czar.  The  English  captain 
seems  to  have  been  much  impressed  by  the  profusion  of 
gold  and  silver  plate  displayed  on  the  occasion,  and  espe- 
cially by  four  mighty  flagons  nearly  two  yards  high, 
wrought  on  the  top  with  elegant  devices  of  towers  and 
dragons'  heads.1  The  servants  were  arrayed  in  habits  of 
gold,  but  the  guests  wore  white  linen ;  and  the  Czar  twice 
changed  his  crown  during  the  banquet. 

Still  more  magnificent  was  Ivan's  entertainment  on 
Christmas  Day,  1559,  of  another  English  guest,  who  came 
as  an  ambassador  from  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  who  was 
much  astonished  at  seeing  twelve  massive  barrels  made  of 
silver  and  hooped  with  fine  gold,  each  containing  twelve 
gallons  of  wine.  Ivan  was  a  second  Nero,  full  of  promise 
in*  his  youth,  but  after  he  reached  full  age  crazed  by  the 
responsibilities  of  absolute  power. 

1  United  Service  Magazine. 


ALEXANDER  I.  AND  MADAME  DE  KRVDB.NER.        \  £ 

In  1568  Elizabeth  despatched  her  favorite  diplomatist, 
Sir  Thomas  Randolph  to  the  Russian  court.  His  mission 
was  to  negotiate  a  commercial  treaty  and  to  soften  her 
refusal  of  the  Czar's  offer  of  marriage,  that  potentate  having 
been  added  to  the  list  of  her  Majesty's  cajoled  and  rejected 
suitors. 

After  that  Russia  sank  back  into  the  obscurity  of  barbar- 
ism for  one  hundred  years. 

Early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  race  of  sovereigns  to 
which  Ivan  belonged  having  become  extinct  in  the  male 
line,  the  House  of  Romanoff,  which  claimed  royal  descent 
through  females,  ascended  the  throne.  The  first  sovereign 
of  that  dynasty,  named  Michael,  was  elected  "  by  an 
assembly  of  the  States,"  and  crowned  July  13,  1613, — 
that  is,  two  years  after  King  James's  Bible  was  first  printed, 
and  three  years  before  Shakespeare  died. 

The  next  Romanoff  was  Alexis.  The  son  of  Alexis  was 
Peter  the  Great,  who  after  being  harassed  by  various  con- 
spiracies, and  sharing  for  a  few  years  his  throne  with  Ivan, 
his  elder  brother,  became  Emperor  and  Autocrat  of  all  the 
Russias.  The  title  assumed  by  Ivan  I.  in  1340  had  been 
Grand  Prince  of  the  various  provinces  called  Russias,  which 
though  governed  by  their  own  dukes,  and  their  own  laws, 
paid  tribute,  and  owed  fealty  to  the  Grand  Prince  of 
Muscovy. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  history  of  Peter  the  Great. 
We  know  how  he  travelled  that  he  might  return  home  and 
instruct  his  people ;  how  he  learned  ship-building  in  Hol- 
land ;  how  he  visited  England,  —  where  William  III. 
requested  Mr.  Evelyn  to  lend  his  house,  and  garden  of  rare 
herbs,  to  his  semi-civilized  guest ;  how  Peter's  amusement 
was  to  be  wheeled  through  the  trim  hedges  in  a  wheel- 
barrow ;  how  he  returned  to  Russia ;  how  he  founded  a 
navy,  conquered  Livonia,  reclaimed  a  swamp  in  it,  and 
built  St.  Petersburg ;  how  he  humbled  Charles  of  Sweden ; 
how  he  acquired  all  the  Baltic  Provinces ;  and  how,  dying 
in  1725  at  the  age  of  fifty-three,  he  left  his  throne  to 


12       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Catherine  his  peasant  wife,  having  previously  named  their 
son  Peter  as  her  heir.  Peter  was  not  his  oldest  son.  A 
year  before  his  accession,  when  he  was  seventeen,  he  had 
married  his  first  wife,  a  noble  Russian  lady,  Eudoxia 
Lapuchin,  by  whom  he  had  had  one  son  named  Alexis. 
Eudoxia  he  divorced,  but  she  survived  him.  Alexis  was 
brought  up  with  neither  love  nor  care.  Catherine  had 
naturally  no  affection  for  her  step-son,  and  was  ambitious 
to  make  her  own  son  Peter  his  father's  heir.  The  customs 
of  Russia  at  that  day  gave  a  father  absolute  power  over  the 
life  of  his  child.  The  Grand  Duke  Alexis,  neglected  and 
unhappy,  led  probably  an  irregular  life  ;  at  any  rate  he  drew 
down  upon  himself  the  displeasure  of  his  father,  who 
ordered  him  either  to  reform,  or  to  retire  into  a  monastery. 
After  trying  for  six  months  to  conform  to  his  father's  wishes, 
Alexis  made  his  escape  to  Vienna.  He  was  soon,  however, 
forced  to  return  to  Russia.  There  the  higher  clergy,  the 
chief  officers  of  state,  and  the  leading  nobles  were  con- 
vened at  Moscow  to  try  him.  Alexis  acknowledged  himself 
unworthy  to  wear  the  crown,  but  entreated  that  his  life 
might  be  spared.  His  trial  was  followed  by  his  confine- 
ment in  a  prison  and  by  the  nomination  of  Catherine  as  her 
husband's  successor. 

Alexis  was  not  left  in  peace  in  his  imprisonment.  His 
father  employed  every  means  to  extract  from  him  the  names 
of  his  confidants  and  advisors.  For  five  months  he  was 
subjected  to  constant  interrogations ;  at  last  his  father  pro- 
nounced him  worthy  of  death,  and  the  next  day  he  was 
found  murdered.  The  father  suffered  pangs  of  remorse  for 
this  act  in  his  later  years.  When  he  died  he  left  his  throne, 
as  I  have  said,  to  Catherine,  who  had  unbounded  influence 
over  him. 

Peter,  their  son,  had  died  before  his  father,  and  Catherine, 
who  reigned  only  two  years,  exercised  the  prerogative  of  a 
Russian  sovereign,  namely,  that  of  choosing  a  successor,  by 
leaving  her  crown  to  Peter  II.,  son  of  the  unfortunate  Alexis. 
He  was  a  lad  of  thirteen,  and  after  the  death  of  her  own 


ALEXANDER  L  AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.   13 

child,  she  had  shown  him  kindness,  and  interested  herself 
in  his  education.  Peter  lived  only  two  years  after  ascending 
the  throne ;  and  then  followed  a  strange  entanglement  of 
succession.  The  Russian  nobles,  passing  over  the  two 
daughters  of  Peter  the  Great  (Anna,  who  had  married  a 
duke  of  Holstein,  and  Elizabeth)  offered  their  crown  to 
the  widowed  Duchess  of  Courland,  Anna  Ivanovna,  daugh- 
ter of  Peter's  elder  brother.  At  her  death  she  left  it  to 
Ivan  IV.,  son  of  her  niece  Anne,  who  had  married  Prince 
Antoine  Ulrich  of  Brunswick.  But  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Peter  the  Great  and  of  Catherine,  easily  effected  a  coup 
d  'etat,  imprisoned  Ivan  and  his  parents,  and  reigned  till  1762. 
She  made  no  legitimate  marriage,  though  she  was  probably 
married  secretly  to  a  young  Cossack  whom  she  raised  to 
many  dignities,  Alexis  Razumoffsky.  She  adopted  as  her 
successor  Peter,  the  son  of  her  sister  Anna  and  the  Prince 
of  Holstein  Gottorp.  She  caused  him  to  be  brought  up  at 
the  Russian  court  and  married  him  to  the  penniless  Princess 
Sophia  Augusta  of  Anhalt-Zerbst.  This  lady,  who  on  her 
baptism  into  the  Greek  Church  took  the  name  of  Catherine, 
was  a  woman  of  extraordinary  vigor,  ambition,  and  ability. 
When  Peter  began  to  ill-treat  her  she  made  short  work  of 
so  feeble  a  husband.  She  forced  him  to  abdicate,  and  then 
suffered  him,  after  his  abdication,  to  be  poisoned  in  a  few 
hours.  She  is  known  in  Russian  history  as  Catherine  II., 
or  Catherine  the  Great.  She  applied  a  strong  coating  of 
French  varnish  to  Russian  barbarism.  She  was  noted  for 
her  many  lovers,  for  her  wars  with  Frederick  the  Great,  and 
also  with  the  Turks  in  the  Crimea ;  but  most  of  all  for  her 
share  in  the  partition  of  Poland,  a  country  whose  great  mis- 
fortune it  has  been  to  have  no  natural  boundaries. 

Catherine  had  had  one  son  by  her  husband  Peter,  the 
Grand  Duke  Paul.  She  kept  him,  as  long  as  she  lived,  in 
a  state  of  servile  tutelage,  even  taking  from  him  his  children 
as  soon  as  they  were  weaned,  and  bringing  them  up  under 
her  own  eye. 

Paul's  first  wife  died  very  young,  and  he  was  then  mar- 


14       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

ried  to  the  Princess  Dorothea  of  Montbelliard,  a  tiny  prin- 
cipality in  the  east  of  France,  shut  in  between  the  Vosges 
and  Jura  Mountains.  No  sweeter  princess  ever  lived  than 
Princess  Dorothea,  who,  on  her  baptism  into  the  Greek 
Church,  took  the  name  of  Marie  Feodorovna.  Madame 
d'  Oberkirch  was  her  dearest  friend,  and  has  left  a  charming 
account  in  her  memoirs  of  the  one  bright  episode  in  poor 
Paul's  life,  his  travels  with  his  wife  in  1782,  through  France, 
Italy,  and  Holland,  as  the  Comte  and  Comtesse  du  Nord. 
Though  they  professed  to  travel  incognito  their  identity 
was  perfectly  well  understood  in  the  courts  they  visited. 
Louis  XVI.  and  poor  Marie  Antoinette  were  lavish  of  atten- 
tions to  them.  The  Princess  was  beautiful,  gentle,  and 
well-informed ;  the  Prince  was  very  plain,  with  a  Calmuck 
face,  and  but  little  education ;  but  he  had  a  kind  heart,  and 
for  years  the  married  pair  were  happy  together.  Paul  had 
strong  faith  in  the  supernatural,  and  believed  that  he  had 
seen  a  vision  forewarning  him  of  his  death  by  violence,  but 
it  seems  to  need  no  ghostly  visitant  to  predict  to  a  prince 
of  the  House  of  Romanoff  so  very  probable  a  destiny. 

Paul  and  Marie  had  many  children,  of  whom  four  were 
sons,  Alexander,  Constantine  (so  called  by  his  grandmother, 
who  destined  him  to  enter  Constantinople  as  its  conqueror) 
Nicholas,  and  Michael.  Of  these  Alexander  and  Nicholas 
became  Czars. 

Catherine  one  night  retired  to  rest  after  drinking  large 
quantities  of  black  coffee,  as  was  her  custom.  In  the 
morning  her  attendants  found  her  lying  speechless  and 
dying  on  her  chamber  floor. 

Paul  ascended  the  throne  in  1 796,  —  in  the  early  days  of 
the  French  Revolution.  He  had  never  been  allowed  during 
his  mother's  life  to  take  the  smallest  part  in  the  affairs  of 
government.  He  had  been  permitted,  however,  to  "  play 
at  soldiers,"  and  his  first  idea  on  becoming  possessed  of 
imperial  power  was  to  alter  the  dress,  discipline,  and  equip- 
ments of  his  army.  This  made  him  intensely  unpopular. 
He  also  sent  an  army,  under  his  brilliant  but  half  crazy 


ALEXANDER  1.  AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.        1$ 

general,  Suwarroff,  to  fight  the  French  Republic,  an  army 
that  did  wonders  in  Northern  Italy,  and  in  the  mountains 
of  Switzerland.  Soon,  however,  Paul  became  dazzled  by 
the  brilliant  career  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  The  result  of 
their  alliance  was  that  he  undertook  to  combine  the  fleets 
of  the  Northern  Powers  against  England.  This  led  to 
Nelson's  Battle  of  Copenhagen,  by  which  he  anticipated 
and  disconcerted  the  intended  movement,  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Danish  fleet,  before  England  had  put  forth  a 
declaration  of  war. 

Russia  was  not  in  sympathy  with  her  Czar's  predilection  for 
the  French  and  their  great  captain.  A  party  of  conspirators 
secured  the  army,  and  declared  Paul  mad.  Indeed,  he  had 
shown  many  symptoms  of  the  malady  hereditary  in  his  family. 
Among  other  things  he  built  a  new  palace  at  St.  Petersburg 
at  great  expense,  and  insisted  on  having  its  decorations  red. 
The  accounts  of  his  behavior  to  his  family  during  the  last 
weeks  of  his  reign  vary  exceedingly.  Some  say  that  he  was 
affectionate  to  his  wife  and  children  to  the  last;  others, 
that  he  was  on  the  point  of  arresting  his  sons,  and  incar- 
cerating the  empress,  when  the  conspiracy  broke  out 
which  ended  his  life.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  har- 
assed and  disgusted  his  army  with  vexatious  regulations 
about  dress  and  hair-powder,  which  last,  Suwarroff  told 
him  bluntly,  had  nothing  to  do  with  gunpowder ;  and  Paul 
dismissed  his  victorious  general  for  saying  so. 

On  the  night  of  March  24,  1801,  the  conspirators,  who 
had  drunk  deeply,  repaired  to  the  palace.  One  of  them 
led  a  troop  of  soldiers  stealthily  beneath  its  walls.  Skirting 
that  part  of  the  building  was  an  avenue  of  lindens.  In  the 
lindens  roosted  a  multitude  of  rooks  which,  disturbed  by  the 
stir  at  midnight,  cawed  so  loudly  that  it  was  feared  their 
noise  would  wake  the  emperor.  A  body  of  soldiers  was 
then  led  across  the  moat,  the  water  in  which  was  frozen. 
The  sentinels  on  duty  were  surprised  and  disarmed.  A 
party  was  detailed  to  enter  the  emperor's  sleeping-room. 
They  passed  up  to  it  by  a  narrow  private  staircase  leading 


1 6        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

from  the  garden.  This  party  consisted  of  three  brothers 
named  Zouboff,  two  leading  Russian  generals,  and  several 
others.  A  faithful  Cossack,  who  kept  watch  before  his 
master's  door,  defended  the  entrance  till  he  was  covered 
with  wounds,  and  then  he  rushed  away  to  bring  assistance. 
The  conspirators  were  in  full  uniform,  with  plumed  hats  on 
their  heads  and  swords  in  their  hands.  The  emperor 
started  up  as  they  entered  his  chamber.  "  Sire  !  "  they 
said,  "we  have  come  to  arrest  you."  Paul  sprang  from  his 
bed.  They  repeated  that  they  had  come  to  arrest  him, 
and  that  he  must  abdicate.  As  Zouboff  went  to  the  door 
to  call  in  others  of  the  party,  General  Benningsen  found  a 
moment  in  which  to  whisper  to  his  master,  "Sire,  your 
life  is  in  danger;  you  must  abdicate!"  As  he  spoke  a 
number  of  conspirators  poured  into  the  room.  Paul  tried 
to  defend  himself.  He  sprang  behind  a  table,  on  which  at 
night  he  kept  two  loaded  pistols ;  but  the  conspirators  fell 
upon  him,  threw  him  down,  and  strangled  him,  tearing  a 
scarf  for  that  purpose  from  the  waist  of  a  sub- officer  who 
was  present.  Paul  struggled  bravely;  but  numbers  over- 
powered him. 

Before  morning  the  Grand  Duke  Alexander  was  pro- 
claimed emperor,  and  St.  Petersburg  was  in  a  frenzy  of 

joy- 
But  although  Alexander  I.  acquiesced  in  his  own  elevation 
to  the  throne,  he  never  got  over  the  melancholy  caused  by 
the  assassination  of  his  father,  and  he  took  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity of  manifesting  his  detestation  of  the  murderers. 

His  first  act  was  to  make  peace  with  England,  and  to 
join  the  alliance  against  France,  and  General  Bonaparte 
her  First  Consul;  but  six  years  later,  at  Tilsit,  in  1807,  ne 
fell  under  the  spell  of  Napoleon's  personal  influence,  and 
became  devotedly  his  friend. 

After  this  friendship  had  lasted  some  years,  Napoleon's 
overbearing  conduct  in  enforcing  what  was  called  "The 
Continental  Blockade,"  drove  Alexander  into  alliance  with 
his  enemies.  "  The  Continental  Blockade  "  prescribed  that 


EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  1. 


ALEXANDER  I.  AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.   \J 

no  article  of  English  manufacture,  nor  any  article  that  had 
been  shipped  on  board  any  English  ship,  or  had  been 
previously  landed  on  the  shores  of  England,  should  enter 
any  port  of  France  or  any  port  of  her  allies.  All  such 
goods  were  to  be  burned  upon  the  beach  in  a  public 
conflagration. 

When  Alexander  I.  joined  the  allies,  Napoleon  retaliated 
by  the  invasion  of  Russia.  He  did  not  strengthen  himself 
by  making  Poland,  which  lay  behind  him,  into  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom,  nor  by  raising,  as  he  was  advised  to  do, 
a  force  of  fifty  thousand  Polish  Cossacks  to  keep  open  his 
communications  with  France.  He  pushed  on  in  the  ter- 
rible winter  of  1812  into  the  heart  of  the  frozen  empire. 
Many  a  campaign  has  been  won  by  "  pushing  on ;  "  but  it 
has  always  been  by  "  pushing  on  "  to  some  place  where  an 
army  could  find  supplies.  Napoleon's  army  "  pushed  on  " 
to  desolation  and  starvation.  There  had  never  been  known 
so  cold  or  so  early  a  winter.  But  this  is  not  the  place  to 
dwell  upon  the  horrors  of  the  retreat  of  the  French  army 
from  Moscow. 

The  Emperor  Alexander,  the  hero  of  the  day,  led  the 
allied  armies  in  return  to  Paris.  There  he  endeavored  to 
procure  generous  conditions  of  peace  for  the  Emperor  Napo- 
leon, his  former  friend.  While  Marie  Louise  was  abandon- 
ing her  husband,  Josephine,  the  repudiated  wife,  caught 
her  death  from  a  cold  contracted  while  walking  round  the 
gardens  of  Malmaison  with  the  Emperor  Alexander,  trying 
to  interest  him  in  the  fortunes  of  the  man  whom  she  still 
held  dear. 

In  the  Congress  of  Vienna  Alexander  hoped  to  get  the 
consent  of  Europe  to  his  encroachments  upon  Turkey,  and 
so  to  approach  the  object  of  all  Russian  policy,  —  the  acqui- 
sition of  Constantinople  as  an  outlet  to  the  Mediterranean. 
The  allied  powers  would  not  further  his  ambition  in  that 
direction.  They  compensated  him  by  confirming  him  in 
the  acquisition  of  Finland,  and  permitted  him  to  do  what 

he  would  in  Poland. 

2 


1 8         RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1XTH  CENTURY. 

Alexander  sent  his  brother  Constantine  (who  was  a  semi- 
barbarian)  to  govern  Poland  as  his  viceroy.  While  there 
Constantine  became  passionately  attached  to  Janetta  Grud- 
zinska,  a  Polish  lady,  and  this  attachment  had  great  influ- 
ence on  his  after  history. 

When  Napoleon  came  back  from  Elba  in  1815,  Alexander 
could  no  longer  stand  his  friend  with  the  other  allies.  The 
ex-emperor  was  banished  to  St.  Helena,  and  Alexander, 
after  projecting  what  was  called  the  Holy  Alliance,  returned 
to  his  own  country.  Some  account  may  not  be  here  unin- 
teresting of  the  singular  and  enthusiastic  woman  who 
exercised  an  all-powerful  influence  over  him  for  several 
years. 

Her  maiden  name  was  Barbara  Julie  von  Wielinghoff, 
and  her  age  was  fifty,  when  in  1814  she  first  met  the  Em- 
peror Alexander.  She,  however,  had  been  born  a  Russian 
subject,  and  at  eighteen  had  been  married  to  a  kind  and 
just  man  twenty  years  older  than  herself,  the  Baron  von 
Kriidener.  She  accompanied  her  husband  on  several  high 
diplomatic  missions,  and  she  was  clever,  lively,  devoted 
to  pleasure,  imaginative,  and  susceptible.  No  wonder  that 
in  the  state  of  society  that  prevailed  in  those  days  in  high 
places,  her  conduct  during  an  absence  from  her  husband 
at  some  baths  in  the  South  of  France,  was  such  that  she 
deeply  repented  of  it  for  the  remainder  of  her  days.  M. 
de  Krtidener,  to  whom  she  was  sincerely  attached,  though 
in  his  absence  she  had  accepted  the  attentions  of  a  lover, 
forgave  his  wife,  and  was  very  merciful  to  her.  He  ex- 
acted however  a  promise  that  she  would  give  up  the  fas- 
cinations of  the  world,  and  lead  a  domestic  life  with  him 
in  retirement.  Fifteen  years  later  she  took  advantage  of  a 
permission  he  had  given  her  to  visit  the  Baths  of  Toplitz,  to 
extend  her  journey  into  Switzerland.  Her  husband  remon- 
strated, but  she  took  her  own  way,  and  was  punished  by  soon 
receiving  news  that  M.  de  Kriidener  had  died  very  suddenly 
of  apoplexy.  She  bitterly  reproached  herself,  but  was  soon 
again  absorbed  in  frivolity.  She  published  "  Valerie,"  a  novel 


ALEXANDER  I.  AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.   19 

of  some  merit,  and  showed  a  most  wonderful  vanity  of 
authorship  in  connection  with  it.  But  in  1804,  when  forty 
years  of  age,  tired  of  a  life  of  folly  and  self-seeking,  she  left 
Paris,  and  sought  refuge  with  her  mother  at  Riga. 

Several  events  that  befel  her  had  great  influence  over 
her  imagination.  One  day  a  shoemaker  waited  upon  her 
by  appointment  to  take  her  measure  for  a  pair  of  shoes. 
As  he  measured  her  foot  she  did  not  look  at  him,  but  sat 
shading  her  face  with  her  hand.  He  asked  her  some 
question,  she  raised  her  eyes,  and  fixing  them  upon  his  face 
thought  she  had  never  seen  a  countenance  so  happy.  It 
sent  a  pang  to  her  heart,  for  she  by  contrast  felt  herself  so 
miserable.  "  My  friend,  are  you  happy  ?  "  she  asked.  He 
answered,  "  I  am  the  happiest  of  men."  She  said  nothing, 
but  the  tone  of  his  voice  and  the  sincerity  of  his  look  haunted 
her,  sleeping  and  waking. 

A  few  days  after  this  she  sent  for  him  again.  He  was  a 
Moravian  Brother  (in  other  words,  a  German  Methodist) , 
and  in  all  sincerity  and  simplicity  he  preached  Christ  unto 
her.  Soon,  with  all  the  fervor  of  a  forgiven  sinner  she 
loved  Him  who  had  first  loved  her. 

En  peu  d'heures  Dieu  laboure  is  a  homely  French  pro- 
verb. Madame  de  Kriidener  in  a  short  time  experienced 
a  great  change  within  herself,  and  a  new  stimulus  was 
given  to  all  her  powers.  She  devoted  herself  to  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  to  spreading  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
wherever  her  influence  could  reach  among  rich  or  poor. 
Two  years  later,  in  1806,  she  became  the  friend  of  the  good 
Queen  Louise  of  Prussia,  and  together  they  ministered  to 
sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  At  this  time  Madame  de 
Kriidener,  accompanied  by  her  daughter,  began  to  travel 
through  all  parts  of  Germany  and  Switzerland,  a  wander- 
ing Evangelist,  preaching  Christ  to  Protestants  and  Catho- 
lics alike. 

Sometimes  she  rested  for  a  while  in  Christian  house- 
holds. At  Geneva  she  associated  with  herself  a  young 
man,  expelled  from  the  ranks  of  the  divinity  students  for 


2O       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

his  persistency  in  holding  prayer-meetings.  She  was  found 
in  the  cabins  of  the  poor,  and  in  the  chateaux  of  the  great. 
Among  those  ladies  of  high  rank  who  came  under  her 
influence  were  the  mother  of  the  wife  of  the  Emperor 
Alexander,  her  daughters  the  Queens  of  Sweden  and 
Bavaria,  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Hesse,  the  Duchess  of 
Brunswick,  and  Queen  Hortense  of  Holland.  But  every- 
where she  went  the  police  looked  upon  her  as  a  sus- 
picious person.  They  feared  she  might  prove  dangerous 
to  Church  and  State.  Sometimes  she  was  hurried  from 
place  to  place,  sometimes  she  was  forbidden  to  speak  at 
all,  sometimes  her  friends  were  separated  from  her,  some- 
times gens  d'armes  set  a  watch  upon  her,  sometimes  her 
correspondence  was  intercepted.  The  movement  was  so 
novel  in  those  times  that  officials  knew  not  what  to  think 
of  it.  One  of  those  persons  whom  she  greatly  strength- 
ened in  the  faith  was  Joseph  Wolff,  the  future  travelling 
missionary. 

But  Madame  de  Kriidener's  exhuberant  enthusiasm  and 
unguarded  disposition  brought  her  into  association  with 
two  religious  charlatans,  a  Marie  Kummer  who  "  dreamed 
dreams,  and  saw  visions,"  and  a  French  priest,  her  follower. 
These  people  greatly  damaged  Madame  de  Krtidener's 
mission  by  their  extravagances  and  their  self-seeking. 

She  had  long  wished  to  know  and  to  exhort  the  Emperor 
Alexander.  She  had  mentioned  this  wish  to  persons  high 
in  the  Russian  court,  and  she  believed  herself  especially 
commissioned  to  proclaim  God's  truth  to  him. 

Alexander  had  in  1812  been  under  strong  religious  con- 
victions. In  1813,  when  his  armies  met  with  such  marvel- 
ous good  fortune,  his  heart  had  been  bent  on  giving  God 
the  glory,  but  in  1814  he  went  to  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
and  there,  for  a  while,  he  gave  himself  up  to  "riotous 
living." 

Here  is  his  own  account  of  himself  as  he  wrote  it  to  a 
friend.  He  had  quitted  Vienna,  disgusted  with  himself, 
and  was  passing  a  few  days  in  salutary  solitude  at  Heilbrun 
in  Bavaria.  He  says  :  — 


ALEXANDER  I.  AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.   21 

"  At  length  I  breathed  freely,  and  the  first  thing  I  did  was  to 
take  up  a  book  that  I  always  carry  about  with  me ;  but  in  con- 
sequence of  the  dark  cloud  which  rested  upon  my  mind  the 
reading  made  no  impression  upon  me.  My  thoughts  were  con- 
fused and  my  head  oppressed.  I  let  the  book  fall,  and  thought 
what  a  comfort  conversation  with  some  pious  friend  would  be 
to  me.  This  idea  brought  you  to  my  mind ;  I  remembered  what 
you  had  told  me  about  Madame  de  Kriidener,  and  the  desire 
that  I  had  expressed  to  you  to  make  her  acquaintance.  'I  won- 
der,' I  said,  '  where  she  is  now,  and  whether  I  shall  ever  meet 
her.'  No  sooner  had  this  passed  through  my  mind  than  I  heard 
a  knock  at  the  door.  It  was  Prince  Wolkousky,  who  said,  with 
an  air  of  the  greatest  annoyance,  that  he  was  very  sorry  to  dis- 
turb me  at  so  unseasonable  an  hour,  but  that  he  could  not  get 
rid  of  a  lady  who  was  determined  to  see  me.  He  said  her  name 
was  Madame  de  Kriidener.  You  may  imagine  my  amazement. 
1  thought  I  must  be  dreaming,  and  exclaimed :  '  Madame  de 
Kriidener!  Madame  de  Kriidener  ? '  This  sudden  response  to 
my  thoughts  could  not  be  accidental.  I  saw  her  at  once,  and 
she  addressed  such  powerful  and  comforting  words  to  me  that 
it  seemed  as  if  she  had  read  my  very  soul ;  and  they  calmed  the 
storm  which  had  been  assailing  me." 

"  The  bearer  of  the  divine  message,"  says  the  narrator, 
"  drew  aside  the  veil  from  the  emperor's  mind.  She  told 
him  of  his  sins,  of  the  frivolity  and  pride  with  which  he 
had  entered  on  his  mission.  '  No,  your  Majesty,  you  have 
not  yet  cried  out  like  the  Psalmist,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner  /"'...  The  emperor  shed  tears,  and  hid  his 
face  in  his  hands.  *  Madame  de  Kriidener  apologized  for 
her  earnestness.  '  No  !  go  on,'  he  said,  <  your  words  are 
music  to  my  soul.'  "  Three  hours  passed  in  conversation  of 
this  nature,  and  the  emperor  implored  Madame  de  Kriidener 
not  to  forsake  him.  He  felt  that  no  one  had  ever  before 
so  touched  his  conscience,  and  unveiled  the  truth  to  him. 
At  Heidelberg,  his  next  halting-place,  he  besought  her  to 
hire  a  little  cottage  connected  with  the  garden  of  the  house 
he  occupied,  and  there  he  spent  every  other  evening.  He 
selected  chapters  in  the  Bible  for  reading,  and  their  con- 
versations were  often  prolonged  till  two  o'clock  in  the 


22        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

morning.  The  news  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo  reached 
them  as  they  were  reading  the  Psalms.  The  emperor, 
Madame  de  Kriidener,  and  Empaytaz  (the  ex-student  from 
Geneva)  threw  themselves  on  their  knees.  After  a  prayer 
and  a  thanksgiving  the  emperor  cried  :  "  Oh,  how  happy  I 
am  !  —  my  Saviour  is  with  me.  I  am  a  great  sinner,  but  He 
will  employ  me  to  give  peace  to  the  nations  !  Oh,  how 
happy  might  all  be  if  they  would  only  understand  the  ways 
of  Providence  and  obey  the  gospel !  " 

When  Alexander  went  with  the  Allied  Armies  to  Paris  he 
requested  Madame  de  Krudener  to  follow  him,  and  in  the 
evenings  he  came  to  her  house  with  his  Bible  under  his 
arm.  He  was  a  man  who  yielded  himself  always  without 
reserve  to  any  prevailing  personal  influence.  Before  he  left 
Paris  he  was  very  desirous  of  making  a  public  profession  of 
faith,  and  he  formed  with  his  allies  what  was  called  the 
Holy  Alliance,  by  which  he  meant  an  alliance  to  promote 
the  reign  of  the  gospel  by  putting  down  all  anarchic  and 
revolutionary  ideas,  and  the  other  Powers  meant  an  alliance 
to  oppose  every  movement  in  Europe  calculated  to  disturb 
the  state  of  things  imposed  upon  the  nations  by  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna. 

When  Alexander  returned  to  Russia  and  no  longer  daily 
saw  Madame  de  Kriidener,  her  influence  over  him  waned. 
She  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  unhappy  Christians  of  the 
Greek  Church  oppressed  by  the  Mahommedans.  Alexander, 
while  under  her  influence,  had  lent  his  countenance  to  a  secret 
society  called  the  Society  of  the  Hetairists.  It  had  been 
formed  ostensibly  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  Christians  in 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  but  it  had  for  its  ultimate  object  the 
deliverance  of  the  Danubian  Provinces  (Moldavia  and 
Wallachia),  Servia,  and  above  all,  Greece.  The  Hetairists 
never  doubted  that  they  had  the  full  sympathy  of  the 
Emperor  Alexander;  and  in  1821  an  insurrection  broke 
out,  under  their  leadership,  simultaneously  in  Wallachia, 
Moldavia,  and  Greece.  In  Wallachia  it  was  headed  by 
Alexander  Ypsilanti,  son  of  one  of  the  former  hospodars 


ALEXANDER  I.   AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.        2$ 

of  that  country,  and  a  member  of  one  of  the  Greek  fam- 
ilies resident  in  Constantinople.  The  elder  Ypsilanti  had 
encouraged  his  Wallachian  subjects  to  revolt  against  the 
Porte  in  1806,  and  had  in  consequence  been  forced  to  fly 
for  his  life  to  St.  Petersburg.  There  his  sons  entered  the 
Russian  army.  Alexander  became  a  colonel,  and  aide-de- 
camp to  the  emperor. 

Alexander  Ypsilanti,  as  leader  of  the  Hetairists,  when  on 
the  top  wave  of  success  found  himself  utterly  disavowed  by 
the  Emperor  Alexander,  who  ordered  him  to  return  at  once 
to  Russia  there  to  receive  punishment  for  a  revolutionary 
attempt. 

The  fall  of  Ypsilanti,  who  was  defeated  in  a  battle 
with  the  Turks,  did  not  prevent  a  rising  in  Greece  under 
Demetrius,  his  brother.  In  vain  had  the  Greeks  presented 
their  cause  before  the  Congress  of  Verona ;  the  European 
Powers  would  only  consider  their  movement  revolutionary ; 
they  could  not  see  that  it  was  the  old  struggle  of  European 
against  Asiatic,  Christian  against  Infidel,  Western  progress 
against  stagnant  Orientalism. 

Alexander  saw  well  enough  that  to  support  the  Hetairists 
would  be  to  take  the  first  step  upon  the  march  that  might 
lead  him  to  Constantinople  ;  but  the  more  he  felt  that  it  was 
to  his  own  interest  to  take  this  step,  the  more  his  conscience 
bound  him  to  be  true  to  his  engagements  with  the  Holy 
Alliance,  which  made  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  oppose  all 
measures  that  would  unsettle  the  state  of  Europe  as  deter- 
mined by  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  The  opportunity  was 
therefore  missed  for  settling,  while  the  Powers  were  upon 
good  terms  with  one  another,  that  Eastern  Question  which 
has  been  the  plague-spot  in  Europe  for  more  than  sixty 
years.  But  for  the  influences  which  superseded  that  of 
Madame  de  Kriidener,  and  persuaded  Alexander  to  dis- 
countenance his  fellow-Christians  for  conscience'  sake,  the 
horrible  massacres  which  swept  away  nearly  one  half  the 
Christian  population  of  Greece,  might  have  been  averted. 

After  the  emperor  had  renounced  all   connection  with 


24       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

the  designs  of  Ypsilanti  he  intimated  to  Madame  de 
Kriidener  that  her  residence  in  St.  Petersburg  would  only 
be  permitted  so  long  as  she  refrained  from  any  expression 
of  opinion  as  to  the  affairs  of  Greece.  She  left  that  city, 
therefore,  and  not  long  afterwards  she  died.  A  few  days 
before  her  death  she  wrote  to  her  son :  "  The  good  that  I 
have  done  will  remain ;  the  harm  that  I  have  done,  —  and 
how  often  have  I  not  mistaken  the  workings  of  my  own 
imagination  and  pride  for  the  voice  of  God  !  —  God  in  His 
mercy  will  wipe  away.  I  have  nothing  to  offer  to  God  or 
man  but  my  many  imperfections ;  but  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin." 

She  died  on  Christmas  Day,  1823.  Her  chief  friend  in 
her  later  days  was  Princess  Galitzin,  who  had  been  head  of 
the  Bible  Society  in  Russia,  and  whose  son  was  the  Prince 
Demetrius  Galitzin,  known  among  us  as  the  Apostle  of  the 
Alleghanies.  He  came  out  as  a  Roman  Catholic  mission- 
ary to  Baltimore,  and  found  his  field  of  work  among  the 
German  miners  in  Pennsylvania  and  Western  Maryland. 
His  face  was  one  of  almost  heavenly  benevolence.  He 
was  a  man  whose  piety  and  self-devotion  may  have  been 
greater  than  his  intelligence,  but  he  gave  up  all  for  Christ's 
sake,  and  died  among  his  humble  people. 

After  parting  from  Madame  de  Krudener,  the  mind  of 
Alexander  became  tinged  with  melancholy ;  he  lost  his 
activity,  and  had  he  lived  a  few  years  longer  he  would 
probably  have  become  a  victim  to  religious  melancholia. 
This  tendency  to  religious  melancholy  seems  to  have  been 
fostered  by  the  people  round  him.  The  empress  had  long 
been  in  ill  health,  and  was  ordered  to  a  warm  climate. 
She  declared  it  was  unfitting  that  an  empress  of  Russia 
should  seek  health  out  of  her  own  dominions,  and  resolved 
to  go  to  the  Crimea.  Thither  her  husband  followed  her. 
On  the  morning  that  he  left  St.  Petersburg,  a  solemn 
mass  was  chanted  for  him  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  in 
the  Monastery  of  Saint  Alexander  Newsky.  The  service 
used  on  the  occasion  was,  it  is  said,  the  Office  for  the  Dead. 


MADAME  DE  KRUDENER. 


ALEXANDER  I.  AND  MADAME  DE  KRUDENER.   2$ 

And  after  this  solemn  service  the  Emperor  was  invited  to 
visit  a  hermit  who  slept  every  night  in  his  coffin.  All  this 
made  a  painful  impression  on  his  sensitive  mind,  and  had  he 
known,  as  we  know  now,  that  at  that  very  moment  a  plan 
for  his  assassination  was  ripening,  the  effect  might  have  been 
deeper  still.  He  did  not,  however,  live  to  be  assassinated. 
He  took  a  malarial  fever  at  Taganrog,  notwithstanding  which 
he  went  on  a  journey  of  inspection  to  Sebastopol,  and  ex- 
posed himself  to  the  malign  influences  of  that  climate, 
which  proved  so  fatal  to  the  French  and  English  troops 
in  1855-1857.  He  returned  to  Taganrog,  and  his  last 
hours  were  embittered  by  details  imparted  to  him  of  the 
conspiracy  which  was  to  have  included  his  assassination. 
He  died  Dec.  i,  1825. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   GRAND   DUKE   CONSTANTINE   AND   JANETTA   GRUDZINSKA. 

A  S  has  been  said  in  the  previous  chapter,  the  Grand 
^*-  Dukes  Alexander,  Constantine,  Nicholas,  and  Michael 
were  the  sons  of  Marie  Fedorovna  (Princess  Dorothy  of 
Montbelliard)  and  of  the  ill-fated  Emperor  Paul.  When 
Alexander  died  of  malarial  fever  in  the  Crimea,  his  last 
hours  were  embittered  by  the  discovery  of  the  first  Nihilist 
conspiracy,  —  a  plot  to  assassinate  him,  —  not  because  he  was 
unpopular  or  accused  of  any  tyranny,  but  because  he  was  an 
obstacle  to  that  programme  of  reform  which,  based  upon 
the  principle  that  "whatever  is,  is  wrong,"  was  to  begin 
by  making  a  clean  sweep  of  existing  institutions,  and  reduc- 
ing everything  to  nothing. 

On  Alexander's  accession  to  the  Russian  throne  he  had 
endeavored  to  associate  his  brother  Constantine  with  him- 
self in  the  affairs  of  government.  Constantine  had  in  his 
father's  lifetime  made  a  campaign  with  General  Suwarroff. 
At  Austerlitz  in  1805  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  rash 
bravery ;  and  he  attended  his  brother  Alexander  through 
the  campaigns  of  1812-1814.  After  the  war  was  over  he 
returned  to  Russia,  and  was  married  to  a  refined  and  gentle 
lady,  Princess  Juliana  of  Saxe-Coburg,  sister  of  the  Duchess 
of  Kent,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  and  of  King 
Leopold,  aunt  both  to  Prince  Albert  and  Queen  Victoria. 
But  the  eccentricities,  the  fits  of  passion,  the  brutalities, 
and  the  savagery  of  Constantine  so  terrified  and  alienated 
the  poor  lady  that  she  refused  to  live  with  him,  and  retired, 
first  to  Switzerland,  and  subsequently  to  her  own  family  at 


CONSTANT1NE  AND  JANETTA  GRUDZ1NSKA.  27 

Saxe-Coburg.  Complaints  of  all  kinds  poured  in  upon 
Alexander  concerning  the  unbearable  brutality  of  his 
brother's  conduct,  and  Constantine  was  dismissed  from  the 
Russian  court  to  superintend  affairs  in  the  new  kingdom  of 
Poland. 

This  kingdom  when  first  restored  to  Russia,  though  shorn 
of  what  had  been  its  proportions  in  the  days  of  its  elected 
kings,  had  been  placed  under  the  care  of  a  provisional 
government,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Prince  Adam 
Czartoryski,  a  true  patriot,  who  in  youth  had  been  Alex- 
ander's dearest  friend. 

"  But,"  says  a  writer  in  the  "  London  Quarterly,"  "  the  czar  of 
all  the  Russias  is  by  birth  and  training  an  autocrat.  Alexander 
was  fast  losing,  under  the  imperial  purple,  the  liberal  tenden- 
cies of  his  earlier  years.  An  independently  national  and  liberal 
constitution  for  Poland  was,  under  such  circumstances,  fated  to 
become  a  dead  letter.  The  Poles,  who  had  seen  the  mirage  of 
liberty  stretch  out  before  their  eager  eyes,  were  given  over  to 
the  violent  and  capricious  rule  of  the  emperor's  brother 
Constantine." 

Yet  in  Paris  in  1814  Constantine  had  been  thrown  into 
contact  with  some  of  the  Polish  leaders,  and  had  conceived 
a  high  esteem  for  them,  showing  preference  thenceforward 
for  the  Poles  in  his  personal  and  private  relations  over  his 
own  countrymen.  At  Warsaw  he  was  head  and  chief;  in 
St.  Petersburg  his  position  was  secondary  and  uncom- 
fortable. At  the  beginning  of  his  career  he  had  exhibited 
his  father  Paul's  strange  fancies  concerning  military  dress 
and  drill.  It  was  currently  reported  at  St.  Petersburg  that 
he  had  said  he  hated  war  because  it  spoiled  his  soldiers' 
uniforms.  A  button  loose,  or  boots  ill-blacked,  or  a  beard 
a  fraction  too  long,  was  sufficient  under  his  generalship  to 
destroy  for  life  the  professional  prospects  of  any  officer  ;  and 
yet  he  had  talent  and  a  quick  knowledge  of  character ;  was 
generous  and  industrious.  He  was  an  affectionate  son  to 
his  mother,  a  kind  husband  to  his  last  wife,  and  a  good 


28       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XI XT  a  CENTURY. 

brother ;  but  his  fierce  explosions  of  rage,  and  his  general 
eccentricity  destroyed  the  effect  of  his  good  qualities. 

His  administration  in  Poland  had  little  to  distinguish  it. 
It  was  a  field  on  which  his  rude  and  savage  character  had 
full  play,  but  his  private  life  after  his  retirement  from  the 
Russian  court  is  a  far  more  attractive  history.  Between 
Constantine  in  public  and  Constantine  in  private  life  there 
were  strange  contradictions.  The  two  characters  seem  in- 
consistent, and  their  reconciliation  might  form  an  interesting 
psychological  problem. 

At  the  period  when  Constantine  appeared  in  Warsaw  as 
generalissimo  of  the  troops,  and  governor-general  of  the 
kingdom  of  Poland,  there  was  living  in  that  capital  a  family 
of  good  birth  but  of  impaired  reputation.  Count  Grud- 
zinski,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  "just  man"  and  even 
a  pious  one,  had  been  the  first  husband  of  a  lady,  who, 
having  with  great  difficulty  procured  a  divorce  from  him, 
had  married  a  certain  Marshal  Broniec,  a  mere  adventurer 
in  spite  of  the  rank  conferred  on  him  by  his  boon  com- 
panion the  King  of  Saxony.  Madame  la  Marechale  had 
had  by  her  first  husband  three  daughters,  whose  custody 
she  was  permitted  to  retain.  The  names  of  these  young 
ladies  were  Janetta,  Josephine,  and  Antoinette. 

These  young  ladies  owed  much  to  their  careful  training 
under  a  lady  who,  although  political  events  had  reduced 
her  to  needy  circumstances,  moved  in  the  best  society  of 
Warsaw,  where  she  was  greatly  esteemed.  The  fair  young 
girls  whom  she  desired  to  introduce  among  her  friends, 
were  pitied,  approved,  and  soon  became  great  favorites. 
The  state  of  affairs  in  their  own  household  was  neither  credit- 
able nor  comfortable.  Count  Grudzinski,  a  devout  Catho- 
lic, had  refused  to  lend  his  name  to  his  wife's  proceedings 
for  a  divorce,  and  while  the  young  girls  were  growing  up, 
confusion,  intrigue,  and  great  pecuniary  distress  prevailed. 
Hence  it  was  felt  by  every  one  desirable  that  the  three  fair 
sisters  should  marry  early  and  leave  their  home.  Josephine, 
an  amiable  and  beautiful  girl,  married  a  distinguished  Polish 


CONS  TAN  TINE  AND  JANE  T  TA  GR  UDZINSR'A .  2Q 

gentleman.  The  youngest  sister  Antoinette,  married  Gen- 
eral Chlapowski,  who  was  subsequently  a  leader  in  the 
Polish  revolt  of  1830,  and  dictator  of  Poland  for  a  brief 
period  between  the  overthrow  of  the  Russian  government 
and  its  terrible  restoration.  Janetta  was  not  so  beautiful 
as  her  two  sisters,  but  it  was  said  of  her  that  "  in  all  things 
she  did  she  charmed."  Her  sweetness  of  disposition  was 
as  attractive  as  her  powers  of  conversation.  In  1818  she 
met  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  for  the  first  time,  and 
the  acquaintance  soon  ripened  into  love.  The  courtship 
lasted  for  more  than  two  years..  Constantine  was  still  the 
husband  of  the  Princess  Juliana,  and  in  Russia  a  divorce 
can  only  be  obtained  by  favor  of  the  emperor,  who  claims 
to  be  ex  officio  the  head  of  all  orthodox  Christians  in  his 
dominions.  In  1820  Constantine  repaired  to  Saint  Peters- 
burg, and  made  it  his  earnest  request  to  his  brother  and 
his  mother  that  he  might  be  divorced  from  his  Saxe-Coburg 
wife,  and  marry  (with  the  imperial  permission)  the  lady 
whom  he  loved. 

It  cost  him  tears  and  prayers  and  sacrifices  to  attain  this 
end.  The  divorce  was  at  last  given,  and  the  consent 
granted,  but  a  heavy  price  had  to  be  paid  for  them.  Pre- 
vious to  the  marriage  an  imperial  ukase  was  published 
depriving  the  children  of  any  marriage  contracted  by  any 
member  of  the  imperial  house  with  any  lady  not  belonging 
to  a  reigning  family,  of  all  rights  of  succession  to  the  throne. 
To  this  Constantine  consented,  and  also  agreed  that  his 
Polish  wife  should  not  be  considered  a  member  of  the 
imperial  family.  Besides  these  conditions,  which  were 
known  to  the  public,  there  was  a  third,  kept  a  profound 
secret,  between  Constantine,  his  brother,  and  their  mother. 
Constantine  signed  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  Alex- 
ander a  paper  by  which  he  renounced  his  right  of  succes- 
sion as  heir  presumptive  to  the  imperial  throne.  This 
paper  was  sealed  and  deposited  by  the  emperor  with  the 
president  of  his  Grand  Council,  only  to  be  opened  in  case 
of  his  death,  when  it  was  to  be  read  immediately. 


3<D       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

These  conditions  having  been  at  last  arranged,  not  with- 
out much  difficulty  (for  Constantine,  though  willing  to 
surrender  his  own  rights,  was  jealous  for  those  of  his  wife), 
the  imperial  lover  went  back  to  Warsaw,  made  his  formal 
demand  to  Count  Grudzinski  for  the  hand  of  his  daughter, 
and  was  married  to  Janetta.  It  is  not  known  under  what 
influence  the  bride,  as  a  Catholic,  overcame  her  religious 
scruples. 

A  contemporary  memoir-writer  thus  speaks  of  the  wed- 
ding :  — 

"  The  Grand  Duke  Constantine  Paulovitch,  brother  and  heir 
of  the  emperor,  married  April  24,  1820,  Mademoiselle  Janetta 
Grudzinska.  For  several  years  there  has  been  talk  of  his 
attachment,  and  those  who  knew  him  well  predicted  how  it 
would  end.  .  .  .  Mademoiselle  Grudzinska  immediately  after  her 
wedding  took  up  her  residence  in  the  grand-ducal  palace,  and 
since  ^hen  she  and  the  grand  duke  are  seen  everywhere  to- 
gether. It  is  considered  very  surprising  that  the  emperor  and 
his  mother  should  have  given  their  consent  to  this  marriage. 
It  is  said  that  the  grand  duke,  when  last  at  St.  Petersburg, 
wept  three  days  at  their  feet  imploring  their  permission.  Janetta 
has  no  title  as  yet,  but  it  is  said  the  emperor  intends  to  give 
her  one.  This  subject  is  the  theme  of  conversation  in  all  circles. 
Many  ladies  envy  Janetta,  but  I  pity  her." 

The  marriage  on  the  whole  was  not  unhappy,  though  the 
bride  soon  found  herself  assailed  by  annoyances,  many  of 
them  caused  by  the  insatiable  demands  of  some  greedy 
members  of  her  family.  Janetta  seems  most  sincerely  to 
have  loved  her  husband,  but  from  the  first  he  forbade  her 
interference  in  public  affairs,  and  warned  her  never  to 
intercede  with  him  on  behalf  of  her  countrymen.  If  she 
had  hoped  to  stand  the  friend  of  Poland,  and  to  assuage 
the  miseries  of  her  own  people,  she  soon  found  that  no 
influence  on  such  subjects  was  allowed  her. 

The  emperor  created  her  Princess  of  Lowicz,  and  pre- 
sented to  his  brother  large  estates  that  bore  that  name. 
These  were  settled  on  the  prospective  children  of  the 
marriage  ;  but  no  children  came.  By  degrees  the  princess 


CONSTANTINE  AND  JAN  ETTA  GRUDZINSKA.  31 

adapted  herself  to  her  anomalous  position.  She  overlooked 
much,  she  forgot  much.  She  could  "  suffer  and  be  still." 
But  though  denied  all  political  influence,  her  influence  was 
great  over  the  semi-barbarian  who  was  her  husband.  In 
her  society  and  under  the  spell  of  her  affection  he  became 
calmer  and  more  refined.  He  always  spoke  of  her  as  his 
home  angel.  Though  forced  to  be  deaf  to  innumerable 
demands  for  honors  and  money  which  harassed  her  con- 
tinually, her  correspondence  with  her  mother  and  sisters 
was  most  loving.  Never  did  a  family  fete  day  or  a  birth- 
day pass  forgotten.  To  her  family  she  wrote  only  of  her 
happiness,  of  her  husband's  attention  to  her,  the  kindness 
she  received,  or  the  embarrassments  she  felt  when  she 
found  herself  treated  with  more  distinction  than  her  rank 
gave  her  a  claim  to;  yet  on  April  3,  1821,  almost  the 
anniversary  of  her  marriage,  she  could  write  thus  to  a  friend 
of  her  girlhood  : — 

"  My  surroundings  are  charming;  I  find  all  sorts  of  pleasant 
things  in  my  home,  all  kinds  of  advantages.  But  this  is  only  of 
late.  At  first  it  appeared  to  me  all  gloomy  and  sad,  and  its 
luxury  was  unbearable.  ...  I  have  suffered  very,  very  much. 
It  seems  to  me  that  I  never  had  so  many  trials  in  my  life  as 
during  this  year.  But  all  that  is  over  now,  and  I  am  completely 
happy.  .  .  .  After  some  months  of  married  life  people  know 
each  other  far  better,  as  you  know,  than  they  can  possibly  do 
before  marriage.  One  has  to  bear,  and  forbear,  and  make  mu- 
tual concessions.  I  am  doing  so,  and  begin  to  feel  happy. 
You  will  understand  that  this  letter  is  only  for  you  and  your 
mother." 

Notwithstanding  the  conditions  on  which  the  emperor 
and  the  empress-mother  insisted  before  they  would  consent 
to  the  grand  duke's  marriage,  the  relations  of  the  princess 
with  the  emperor  and  the  court  were  always  friendly. 
When  Alexander  came  to  Warsaw,  soon  after  his  brother's 
marriage,  he  gained  golden  opinions  even  from  the  reluc- 
tant Poles.  The  Princess  of  Lowicz  felt  the  attractions  of 
his  character,  and  always  spoke  of  him  with  enthusiasm. 


32       KUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

For  three  years  and  a  half  after  this  the  princess  led  a 
quiet  life  at  Belvidere,  —  a  palace  which,  although  almost  a 
country  seat,  stood  within  the  limits  of  Warsaw.  Her  health 
was  not  good  ;  but  time  and  her  husband's  tender  solicitude 
for  her  in  her  weakness  drew  them  more  closely  together. 
Besides  this,  she  had  the  good  opinion  of  the  Czar  and  the 
affection  of  the  whole  imperial  family,  —  more  particularly 
that  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael,  and  his  sisters,  the  Grand 
Duchesses  Anne  and  Marie. 

A  few  days  before  Christmas,  1825,  the  Emperor 
Alexander  breathed  his  last.  Up  to  the  end  he  per- 
sistently refused  to  be  thought  ill,  or  to  omit  the  duties 
of  his  station. 

The  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  who  was  residing  in  St. 
Petersburg,  immediately  on  receipt  of  the  news  of  Alex- 
ander's death  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Constantine, 
his  elder  brother.  He  then  despatched  two  couriers  to 
Warsaw  to  inform  Constantine  that  he  was  now  emperor. 
Strange  to  say,  both  couriers  died  upon  the  road,  and  the 
news  was  brought  to  Warsaw  by  an  aide-de-camp  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  who  was  charged  to  present  to 
the  new  emperor  the  respectful  homage  of  his  brother. 

Before,  however,  this  officer  was  despatched  from  St. 
Petersburg,  the  army  as  well  as  Nicholas  had  sworn  alle- 
giance to  Constantine.  No  sooner  had  they  done  so  than 
the  president  of  the  Council  produced  the  letter  that  the 
Emperor  Alexander  had  confided  to  his  keeping.  It  con- 
ferred the  imperial  crown  on  Nicholas,  and  enclosed  a 
letter  from  Constantine  confirming  and  sanctioning  this 
arrangement. 

In  spite  of  the  production  of  this  document,  Nicholas 
persisted  in  despatching  his  aide-de-camp  to  Warsaw  to 
assure  his  brother  of  his  loyalty  and  submission. 

The  effect  produced  at  Belvidere  by  the  arrival  of  this 
messenger  was  very  great.  Some  say  that  Constantine 
fainted  on  hearing  of  the  death  of  Alexander.  It  is  certain 
that  he  at  once  shut  himself  up  alone  in  a  state  of  great 


CONSTANTINE  AND  JAN  ETTA  GRUDZINSKA.  33 

excitement.  Even  the  princess  was  not  suffered  to  come 
near  him.  At  a  distance  she  stood  with  clasped  hands 
where  he  might  see  her  from  his  window.  At  the  end  of 
two  hours  he  came  forth  self-collected  and  calm,  though  all 
the  furniture  in  his  room  had,  during  his  transport,  been 
broken  in  pieces.  His  first  words  were  to  the  princess,  — 
an  assurance  that  she  might  make  her  mind  easy,  for  he  was 
not  going  to  reign. 

He  at  once  despatched  his  youngest  brother,  Michael,  to 
Nicholas,  confirming  his  resignation  of  the  throne ;  and 
Nicholas,  when  with  energy  he  had  thoroughly  crushed 
the  projected  insurrection  of  the  Nihilists,  made  prepara- 
tions for  his  coronation.  But  Constantine  was  still  popular 
with  the  party  of  Old  Russia,  —  the  party  that  loved  long 
beards  and  the  national  costumes ;  and  Nicholas  was 
anxious  that  his  subjects  should  receive  some  personal 
assurance  that  he  was  to  be  crowned  czar  with  the  full 
consent  of  his  deposed  brother.  He  therefore  urged 
Constantine  to  be  present  at  his  coronation.  Constan- 
tine returned  no  answer;  but  on  the  eve  of  the  day 
appointed  he  drove  into  Moscow  in  a  travelling-carriage 
attended  by  a  single  aide-de-camp.  Nicholas,  grateful  and 
delighted,  hastened  to  welcome  him ;  but  his  surprise  and 
embarrassment  were  great  when  Constantine  announced 
that  he  only  meant  to  stay  one  night,  and  should  set  out  on 
his  return  the  next  day  after  the  conclusion  of  the  cere- 
mony. It  had  to  be  explained  to  him,  with  fear  and 
trembling,  that  there  had  been  some  delay  in  the  prepara- 
tions, and  that  the  coronation  could  not  take  place  for  a 
week.  With  some  grumbling  at  the  delay,  Constantine 
consented  to  remain  till  after  the  ceremony.  His  native 
ferocity,  aggravated  by  the  excitement  of  the  occasion, 
kept  the  new  Czar  Nicholas  all  that  week  in  a  state  of  great 
uneasiness ;  and  it  is  not  quite  certain  what  thoughts  were 
stirring  in  the  heart  of  the  elder  brother ;  but  not  many 
hours  before  the  coronation  took  place  Constantine  became 
aware  that  in  the  preparations  for  the  ceremonial  every- 

3 


34      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

thing  had  been  arranged  so  as  to  do  him  honor.  This 
seemed  to  produce  in  him  the  effect  of  a  sudden  revela- 
tion. That  afternoon,  at  a  review,  he  abruptly  placed  him- 
self at  the  head  of  his  own  regiment,  and  advancing  to 
where  the  emperor  sat  on  horseback  at  the  far  end  of  the 
great  court  of  the  Kremlin,  he  raised  his  hand  in  military 
salute  to  him  as  his  superior.  The  emperor  seized  him  by 
the  arm.  Constantine  bent  forward,  and  kissed  the  hand 
of  his  brother.  The  emperor  flung  himself  upon  his  neck, 
and  they  embraced  in  a  transport  of  brotherly  affection. 
Next  day  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  refused  to  place 
himself  upon  the  throne  that  had  been  prepared  for  him  at 
the  coronation,  but  took  his  place  simply  as  a  grand  duke 
of  the  imperial  family  by  the  side  of  his  brother  Michael. 
The  following  morning,  in  spite  of  the  earnest  remonstrances 
of  the  emperor,  he  started  back  to  Poland. 

He  returned  to  his  home,  to  the  Polish  army  he  was  en- 
deavoring to  discipline  after  the  Western  fashion,  and  to  the 
wife  who  loved  the  wild  nature  she  had  subdued.  That  he 
was  unpopular  made  her  love  him  with  more  wifely  devo- 
tion ;  and  in  truth  he  must  have  had  some  qualities  well 
worthy  of  her  love. 

Here  are  parts  of  two  lettejs  written  by  him  to  his  wife's 
mother :  — 

"  My  affection  for  my  dear  wife  increases  daily ;  for  she  is  the 
source  of  all  my  happiness,  and  my  sole  aim  is  to  try  to  make 
her  happy  and  content.  Thank  God,  her  health  is  improved, 
and  she  is  ever  that  sweet  and  charming  Janetta  whom  you 
have  always  known." 

And  again,  — 

"  Thanks  to  our  excellent  Janetta,  I  enjoy  a  happiness  in  my 
home  I  had  never  dreamed  of,  and  I  pray  God  it  may  continue 
until  death." 

But  events  in  Poland  were  in  preparation  for  a  crisis. 
In  1830-1831  all  Europe  was  enveloped  in  clouds  and 
darkness,  and  the  treaties  of  Vienna,  then  shattered  by  the 


CONSTANTINE  AND  JAN  ETTA  GRUDZINSKA.  35 

shock  of  revolution,  were  in  another  generation  to  be  swept 
away.  Revolutionary  fires  had  been  smouldering  through- 
out Europe  ever  since  the  Spanish  Revolution  of  1821.  In 
Poland  as  in  Italy  there  were  secret  societies  which  kept  up 
fermentation  beneath  the  social  surface. 

"Towards  the  close  of  1830  the  exasperated  Poles  broke  out 
into  open  insurrection.  A  great  wave  of  hope  swept  over  the 
whole  nation,  which  rose  to  vindicate  its  right  to  national  exist- 
ence and  liberty  with  overmastering  purpose,  and  at  first  with 
signal  success.  But  alas  !  Poland  had  against  her  her  internal 
feuds,  the  overwhelming  superiority  of  the  Russian  army,  and 
the  absence  of  any  support  from  foreign  nations."  l 

The  wrath  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  at  the  success  of  the 
revolution  of  July,  1830,  in  France,  which  terminated  in  the 
triumph  of  the  bourgeoisie  and  the  elevation  of  Louis 
Philippe  to  the  throne,  went  almost  beyond  the  bounds  of 
reason.  Not  only  had  it  destroyed  his  hopes,  and  broken 
up  his  plans,  but  it  had  attracted  the  sympathies  of  all 
unquiet  spirits.  He  at  once  mobilized  the  Russian  army, 
that  it  might  be  ready  to  advance  on  revolutionary  France. 
And  this  demonstration  of  animosity  against  France  caused 
the  latent  spirit  of  disaffection  in  Poland  to  blaze  out  into 
activity.  On  the  night  of  Nov.  29,  1830,  a  party  of  young 
men  began  a  movement  which  at  first,  for  a  few  hours, 
seemed  to  fail  of  success,  but  by  daylight,  owing  to  a 
variety  of  circumstances,  had  become  a  temporary  victory. 

Eighteen  of  the  conspirators  made  their  way  to  the 
palace  of  Belvidere,  the  residence  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Constantine.  They  entered  it  without  opposition  while 
all  within  it  lay  asleep,  and  in  apparent  security.  They 
murdered  two  of  the  grand  duke's  gentlemen  in  cold 
blood,  and  made  their  way  into  his  chamber.  He  had 
been  awakened  by  his  valet.  He  sprang  out  of  bed,  flung 
a  cloak  over  his  night-clothes,  and  rushed  down  a  narrow 
stairway  to  his  wife's  apartments.  There  he  found  the 
greatest  confusion.  The  court  ladies  had  all  left  their  beds, 

1  London  Quarterly  Review,  1890. 


36       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

and  were  assembled  in  the  salon.  The  princess  made 
them  fall  upon  their  knees  around  her  husband,  and  pray 
aloud  for  his  safety.  Unhappily,  Constantine  had  wholly 
lost  his  self-possession,  and  though  a  soldier  brave  to  rash- 
ness in  his  early  career,  he  now  trembled  with  terror.  The 
eighteen  conspirators,  after  searching  his  apartments,  re- 
tired in  haste,  murdering  General  Gendre,  his  chief  coun- 
sellor on  their  way.  They  had  not  gone  a  hundred  yards 
from  the  palace  when  a  party  of  Polish  horsemen  galloped 
up  to  the  rescue.  Why  the  little  band  of  conspirators  was 
not  annihilated,  it  is  hard  to  say ;  but  by  this  time  the 
insurrection  had  spread  among  the  populace  of  Warsaw. 
Polish  soldiers  were  fraternizing  with  the  instigators  of  the 
movement;  and  of  all  the  grand  duke's  army  there  re- 
mained faithful  to  him  only  four  regiments  of  cavalry. 

Had  he  put  himself  at  once  at  the  head  of  these  four 
regiments  he  might  have  won  a  victory,  but  he  seemed 
dazed  by  the  events  of  the  night.  He  trembled  like  a  leaf, 
and  wandered  aimlessly  among  his  troops,  a  prey  to 
despair,  which  seemed  to  have  stupefied  him.  He  and  his 
wife  retired  before  the  fury  of  the  storm,  and  sought  shelter 
at  Wiezbno.  There  for  some  days  they  lived  in  the  poor 
hut  of  a  gardener,  destitute  of  comforts  of  every  kind. 
The  princess  showed  courage  and  capacity  in  this  emer- 
gency, but  she  could  not  always  restrain  her  feelings. 

The  leader  chosen  by  the  insurgents  was  General 
Chlapowski,  and  one  of  his  titles  to  their  confidence  was 
that  he  was  known  to  harbor  strong  resentment  against  the 
grand  duke  for  an  insult  publicly  put  upon  him  in  1818. 
Yet  since  that  time  he  had  married  Antoinette  Grudzinska, 
the  Princess  of  Lowicz's  favorite  sister,  and  the  princess 
had  favored  the  match  in  spite  of  their  mother's  opposition. 

Chlapowski  deemed  it  his  duty  as  a  patriot  to  endeavor 
to  negotiate  with  the  grand  duke  before  proceeding  to 
extremities.  The  negotiation  came  to  nothing,  and  it  lost 
him  the  confidence  of  his  countrymen.  But  as  the  depu- 
tation sent  by  him  to  confer  with  the  grand  duke  was 


CGNSTANTINE  AND  JAN  ETTA  GRUDZINSKA.          37 

leaving  the  camp  where  Constantine  had  succeeded  in 
assembling  eight  thousand  men,  it  was  followed  by  a  large 
part  of  the  hitherto  faithful  Polish  cavalry.  There  was 
nothing  left  for  Constantine  but  flight,  and  Chlapowski,  to 
the  great  indignation  of  his  countrymen,  took  no  pains  to 
pursue  him. 

Not  long  after  this  the  Polish  Revolution  lost  all  prospect 
of  success,  though  the  struggle  was  continued  a  few  months 
longer.  The  Czar  hurried  his  army,  already  mobilized,  to 
the  scene  of  insurrection.  The  general  in  command  was 
Diebitsch,  who  had  won  his  laurels  in  1826  in  the  Turkish 
war.  He  advanced  upon  Warsaw,  but  with  him  came  the 
cholera.  The  Poles  won  a  battle,  but  the  soldiers  who  had 
fought  hand  to  hand  with  Russians  were  stricken  down  by 
sickness  almost  on  the  field  of  battle.  The  fever  of  men's 
minds,  and  the  absence  of  all  sanitary  precautions,  made 
the  plague  horrible  in  Warsaw ;  nevertheless  the  war  went 
on.  Step  by  step  Diebitsch  advanced,  but  early  in  January, 
1831,  the  Poles  gained  an  important  victory.  Diebitsch 
retreated  to  his  camp,  and  in  his  despair  and  self-abandon- 
ment gave  himself  up  to  drunkenness.  It  was  thus  that  a 
messenger  from  the  czar  met  him,  and  presented  him  his 
dismission.  The  next  day  Diebitsch  was  seized  with 
cholera  and  died.  The  messenger  passed  on  to  Minsk  to 
carry  dispatches  to  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine.  The 
day  after  their  interview  the  grand  duke  also  died  of 
cholera.  He  was  fifty-three  years  of  age. 

His  widow  retired  to  St.  Petersburg.     On  her  way  she 

wrote  thus  to  her  mother :  — 

AUGUST  2,  1831. 

DEAR  MAMMA,  —  Your  daughter  is  very,  very  miserable. 
She  has  lost  him  for  whom  she  lived,  and  now  she  is  alone,  with- 
out husband,  friend,  or  protector.  O  mother !  you  can  never 
know  the  grief  this  parting  has  caused  me. 

In  the  middle  of  September  a  few  words  written  in  a 
trembling  hand  close  the  records  in  her  journal :  — 

"  I  am  very  ill,  and  have  received  the  last  sacraments." 


38        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Yet  she  lingered  a  few  weeks  longer.  She  was  watched 
over  with  affectionate  solicitude  by  the  imperial  family. 
She  had  a  presentiment  that  she  would  die  upon  the  anni- 
versary of  the  dreadful  night  when,  roused  from  sleep,  she 
fled  with  her  husband  from  their  home  at  Belvidere.  The 
Emperor  Nicholas,  with  kind  consideration,  had  the  dates 
changed  in  the  little  calendar  she  always  used,  in  order  to 
mislead  her;  but  in  vain.  She  died  on  November  29,  1831, 
exactly  one  year  after  the  attack  on  the  palace  of  her 
husband. 

She  was  buried  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Chapel  built  by 
Alexander  I.  at  Tzarskoe'-Se'lo  near  St.  Petersburg,  and  the 
court  wore  mourning  for  her  for  two  weeks.1 

"Many  tears,"  says  a  French  writer  often  hostile  to 
emperors  and  kings,  "were  shed  upon  the  tomb  of  this 
Polish  lady,  so  fair,  so  tender,  and  so  faithful.  Her  own 
conjugal  devotion,  and  the  beneficent  influences  of  her  love 
upon  the  character  of  her  husband  were  no  secrets  to  any 
one.  The  Grand  Duke  Constantine,  though  fierce  in  tem- 
per, and  generous  by  impulse,  gave  up  a  throne  to  win  her, 
and  having  won  her,  he  showed  her  during  the  remainder 
of  his  life  the  submission  of  a  child  and  the  devotion  of  a 
knight  of  romance  in  the  days  of  chivalry." 

At  one  time  there  had  been  brief  hopes  that  England, 
France,  Austria,  and  the  new  Catholic  kingdom  of  Belgium 
might  intervene  in  favor  of  Poland,  but  the  diplomatic 
desire  to  keep  Europe  out  of  a  general  war  if  possible, 
caused  all  projects  of  that  kind  to  fall  to  the  ground. 

In  nine  months  there  were  several  different  forms  of 
government  in  Warsaw.  After  the  night  of  Nov.  29,  1830, 
when  Warsaw  was  in  a  ferment  of  joy  and  of  enthusiasm, 
Chlapowski 2  was  the  popular  favorite  and  was  made  head 

1  This  account  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  and  of  Janetta 
Grudzinska  has,  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Cath- 
olic World,"  been  almost  entirely  copied  from  an  article  I  wrote  for 
that  periodical  in  Oct.  1888.    My  material  was  then  drawn  chiefly  from 
the  "  Revue  Britannique  "  in  March  of  the  same  year.  —  E.  W.  L. 

2  Spelled  by  some  writers  Chlopicki. 


CONSTANTINE  AND  JAN  ETTA  GRUDZINSKA.  39 

of  the  government  by  acclamation.  Then  came  a  new 
provisional  government  by  an  Administrative  Council,  at  the 
head  of  which  was  Prince  Adam  Czartoryski ;  this  Council 
was  arbitrarily  set  aside  by  Chlapowski  not  long  after,  when 
he  constituted  himself  dictator.  Eventually  he  retired,  like 
Prince  Adam  Czartoryski,  into  the  ranks  of  the  army.  But 
the  lack  of  some  strong  man  of  authority  and  experience 
at  the  head  of  the  government,  and  as  chief  commander  of 
the  army,  led  to  terrible  disorders  in  Warsaw  at  a  time 
when  all  patriots  should  have  been  united  for  the  common 
good.  Warsaw  became  the  scene  of  the  wildest  confusion. 
The  plague  was  raging,  yet  bands  of  excited  revolutionists- 
rushed  through  the  streets  demanding  the  decapitation  of 
traitors.  Still  there  was  energy  of  a  certain  kind.  A  levee 
en  masse  was  called  for  throughout  the  country.  Priests 
shouldered  the  crucifix,  boys  and  old  men  armed  them- 
selves, the  peasants  left  their  harvests  and  rushed  to  battle 
with  their  scythes. 

Marshal  Paskievitch  had  been  appointed  to  succeed 
Marshal  Diebitsch,  and  with  fresh  masses  of  troops  from 
the  interior  of  Russia  was  advancing  step  by  step  on 
Warsaw,  to  crush  the  revolution  by  one  stunning  blow. 

On  August  15,  the  birthday  of  Napoleon,  all  Warsaw  was 
celebrating  his  memory.  He  had  behaved  perhaps  more 
ill  to  the  Poles  than  to  any  other  nation,  their  want  of 
frontier  having  withheld  him  from  forming  Poland  into  an 
independent  kingdom.  Nevertheless  the  whole  country 
revered  his  memory.  His  friendship  might  not  have  been 
worth  much  to  the  Poles,  but  he  had  been  the  only  sovereign 
who  had  ever  showed  them  active  sympathy.  News  that 
day  was  brought  in  that  the  Russians  were  advancing  on 
the  doomed  city.  Under  cover  of  this  rumor,  a  rising  was 
made  to  depose  Chlapowski  in  favor  of  a  man  of  no 
experience  named  Krukoviecki.  He  incited  his  followers 
to  burst  the  prison  doors  and  massacre  the  Russian  prison- 
ers. He  was  proclaimed  Governor  of  Warsaw  and  removed 
at  once  Dembinski  (the  only  general  of  ability  left  since 


4<D       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

the    retirement    of    Skrzynecki)    from    command   of    the 
army. 

Three  weeks  later  the  Russians  attacked  Warsaw  and 
gained  important  advantages.  Marshal  Paskievitch  had  the 
Grand  Duke  Michael  with  his  army.  On  September  6 
Governor  Krukoviecki  went  out  to  treat  with  the  Russian 
commanders.  The  terms  proposed  were  amnesty  on  the 
one  part,  complete  submission  on  the  other.  Till  one 
o'clock  the  Russians  offered  to  delay  their  attack  upon  the 
city,  in  order  to  enable  the  Polish  Diet  to  accept  or  to  reject 
these  conditions.  One  o'clock  struck  and  nothing  had 
been  decided.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  a  Russian  cannon 
gave  the  signal  for  assault.  By  nine  o'clock  Warsaw  was  in 
flames,  and  its  inhabitants  had  capitulated.  The  Governor 
made  no  conditions.  He  threw  himself  and  his  country, 
he  said,  "  on  the  paternal  heart  of  the  Czar." 

But  such  a  submission  was  rejected  by  the  distracted 
inhabitants.  They  seized  their  Governor,  and  refused  to 
let  him  sign  the  ratification.  The  disorderly  remnant  of  a 
Polish  government  marched  out  of  one  gate  while  the 
Russians  were  entering  Warsaw  by  another. 

Generals  Dembinski  and  Rybinski  rallied  what  remained 
of  the  Polish  army,  and  pushed  their  way  into  Prussia, 
where  they,  and  all  the  men  with  them,  were  put  under 
arrest. 

Paskievitch,  the  victorious  general,  gave  his  soldiers 
license  to  commit  all  sorts  of  horrors.  Murder,  sack,  and 
pillage  followed  his  entrance  into  the  revolted  city.  Then 
he  sat  down  and  wrote  his  celebrated  despatch,  beginning : 
"  Order  reigns  in  Warsaw." 

The  sympathy,  the  fury,  the  distress,  this  outcome  of  the 
Polish  revolution  caused  in  France  would  be  difficult  to 
describe.  One  of  the  Parisian  papers  published  a  few 
verses  which  roused  the  masses  to  a  high  pitch  of  sorrow- 
ful enthusiasm  :  — 

"  Brave  heart !  Brave  Warsaw !  T  was  for  us  she  died  — 
Died  gun  in  hand,  unbending  in  her  pride  ; 


GRAND  DUKE  CONSTANTINE. 


CONSTANTINE  AND  JANETTA  GRUDZINSKA.          41 

Died  for  fair  France ;  died  with  unhumbled  knee, 

Died,  weeping  o'er  our  Bird  of  Victory ! 

Died  with  our  cry  of  pity  yet  unheard ; 

Without  one  fond  adieu,  one  loving  word ! 

Where  shall  we  hide  henceforth  dishonored  lives  ? 

Quick !  snatch  the  distaff  from  our  braver  wives ! 

Fling  down  our  muskets,  furl  our  flags  so  gay, 

Tear  off  militia  plumes,  fling  belts  away ! 

By  fits  and  starts  French  courage  comes  and  goes  ; 

Boast  we  no  more  of  victory  o'er  our  foes ; 

Let  the  red  shame  mount  up  —    Hark  1  hear  the  drum  I 

You  wish  to  see  the  Russians  ?     Here  they  come !  " 1 

Yet  as  we  look  back  upon  this  sad,  sad  story,  we  feel  that 
it  was  the  Poles'  own  want  of  cohesion  and  of  great  men 
to  guide  their  councils,  and  to  lead  their  armies,  that  led  to 
such  a  disastrous  termination  of  the  Polish  revolution.  Had 
Europe  intervened  far  better  terms  might  have  been  made 
for  the  brave  unhappy  kingdom,  but  it  seemed  unlikely 
that  Poland  in  any  event  could  have  secured  permanently 
her  separation  from  Russia.  Freedom  did  not  "  shriek  " 
this  time  when  Poland  fell,  but  rather  mourned  over  the 
disorders  committed  in  her  name,  while  Pity  shed  tears 
over  the  victims  of  the  struggle. 

1  Louis  Blanc,  Dix  Ans. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   CRESCENT   VERSUS   CHRISTENDOM. 

"D  Y  way  of  preface  to  our  story  of  the  Turkish  Empire 
-^  during  the  nineteenth  century,  it  may  be  well  to  glance 
back  at  the  settlement  of  the  Turks  in  Europe  five  centu- 
ries before.  The  Eastern  Question  indeed  can  hardly  be 
comprehended  without  this  retrospect. 

Looking  at  a  map  of  Europe  made  in  the  last  century 
we  are  astonished  at  the  extent  of  the  Turkish  power. 
Besides  the  narrow  strip  of  land  we  now  call  Turkey  in 
Europe,  the  Turkish  sultan  in  1755  (at  the  time,  let  us 
say,  of  Braddock's  defeat)  ruled  over  Greece,  Thessaly, 
the  Islands  of  the  Archipelago,  Crete,  Cyprus,  the  Ionian 
Isles,  Bulgaria,  Bosnia,  Herzegovina,  Servia,  Moldavia, 
Wallachia,  Bessarabia,  the  Ukraine,  and  the  Crimea.  His 
frontier  on  the  north  touched  Poland.  His  dominions  were 
wedged  in  between  Hungary  and  Russia,  and,  leaving  out 
of  account  his  provinces  in  Asia,  he  ruled  as  suzerain  over 
all  the  southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

Since  then  the  sultan  has  been  stripped  of  all  these  vast 
possessions  (except  the  Islands  of  the  Archipelago  and 
Crete)  and  it  may  be  well  to  see  how  he  acquired  them. 
Subsequent  chapters,  relating  more  particularly  to  the  nine- 
teenth century  will  tell  how  one  by  one  they  have  been  shorn 
away. 

All  educated  persons  are  vaguely  aware  that  the  Turks, 
like  every  other  fierce  and  migratory  horde,  came  from  the 
sun-rising,  and  had  their  origin  at  the  foot  of  the  Altai 
Mountains.  The  earliest  mention  of  them  is  supposed  to 
be  found  in  Genesis,  where  Togarmak  (assumed  by  anti- 


THE  CRESCENT   VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  43 

quarians  to  have  been  their  ancestor)  is  enumerated  among 
the  grandsons  of  Japhet,  —  a  circumstance  which  gives,  it 
would  seem,  to  their  introduction  into  the  European  family 
the  very  earliest  date,  and  cuts  the  ground  beneath  the 
modern  argument  that  Turks,  as  Asiatics,  have  no  business 
to  be  upon  the  soil  of  Europe  at  all. 

In  Ezekiel  "  those  of  the  house  of  Togarmak  "  are  men- 
tioned as  great  traders  in  "  horses  and  mules ;  "  and  in  the 
final  destruction  of  Gog  out  of  the  land  of  Magog  (Gog 
being  a  Russian  prince,  according  to  the  Septuagint)  the 
house  of  Togarmak  out  of  the  north  quarter,  with  all  its 
bands,  is  in  alliance  with  Jews,  Persians,  Ethiopians,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  the  North  African  coast,  against  the 
common  enemy. 

Be  all  this  as  it  may,  we  know  very  little  concerning  the 
Turks  until  about  five  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  Chris- 
tian era.  They  were  then  settled  on  the  frontier  of  China. 
They  inhabited  walled  towns,  were  extensively  engaged  in 
commerce,  and  lived  under  the  protection  of  just  laws. 
Their  leader  in  the  latter  days  of  the  Roman  Empire  sent 
an  embassy  to  the  Emperor  Justinian.  This  Turkish  chief 
is  believed  to  have  been  the  son  of  Toumen  the  Blacksmith  ; 
for  the  race  was  already  advanced  in  manufactures,  and  in 
the  working  of  iron.  Toumen  was  the  founder  of  the  first 
great  Turkish  Empire.  Under  him  his  people  rose  in  re- 
bellion against  the  Avars,  a  mixed  Mongolian  race,  and  his 
dominions  are  believed  to  have  extended  across  the  conti- 
nent of  Asia,  from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  Pacific. 

The  son  of  Toumen  was  a  rude  barbarian,  but  a  sovereign 
alive  to  the  importance  of  a  balance  of  power,  and  the  ties 
of  commercial  intercourse.  He  had  instructed  his  ambass- 
adors to  procure  him,  if  possible,  the  silk  trade  of  Europe, 
and  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  Byzantine  emperor  against 
their  common  enemy,  the  Persians. 

During  the  prosperous  years  of  the  mighty  power  of  Rome 
the  commerce  of  the  West  with  India,  which  was  carried  in 
fleets  down  the  Red  Sea,  struck  Pliny  with  astonishment. 


44       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

After  the  reign  of  Justinian  the  disorders  in  the  empire  of 
the  East,  caused  this  great  traffic  rapidly  to  decline.  War, 
piracy  and  devastation,  depopulation,  and  destruction  of 
property  soon  left  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Red  Sea  as 
desolate  and  unproductive  as  we  find  it  now ;  and  the  well- 
governed  dominions  of  the  Turkish  khan  opened  a  surer 
highway  to  India  and  the  Spice  Islands. 

Two  centuries  later,  from  causes  now  unknown  to  us,  the 
eastern  provinces  of  the  Turkish  khan  became  subject  to 
China,  while  the  west  fell  under  the  dominion  of  the  Sara- 
cens ;  but  even  in  adversity  the  Turks  soon  became  masters 
of  the  situation.  They  embraced  Mahommedanism,  and 
the  Saracen  caliph,  admiring  the  bravery  and  hardiness  of 
the  Turkish  troops,  formed  them  into  his  body-guard.  By 
the  eleventh  century  these  soldiers,  called  Mamlouks,  had 
become  masters  of  the  Caliphat,  and  being  joined  by  a  tribe 
of  their  own  blood,  —  fresh  from  the  cradle  of  their  race, 
and  commanded  by  the  all-conquering  Togul  Beg, —  they 
proceeded  to  conquer  western  Asia,  and  to  accelerate  the 
decline  and  fall  of  all  that  was  left  of  the  great  eastern 
division  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

The  habits  of  the  new  invaders,  who  are  called  the  Seljouk 
Turks  in  memory  of  Seljouk  the  father  of  Togul  Beg,  were 
neither  commercial,  agricultural,  nor  manufacturing,  like 
those  of  the  tribe  which  founded  the  first  Turkish  Empire. 
Wherever  they  came  "  the  verdure,"  says  a  contemporary 
writer,  "  fled  from  the  bloody  sod."  Where  they  pitched 
their  tents,  orchards,  and  fertile  fields  disappeared  for  a 
day's  journey  round  their  encampments ;  and  still,  in  wan- 
dering through  Asia  Minor,  we  are  told  that  travellers  "  come 
unexpectedly  on  districts  fertile  as  the  plains  of  Poland  or 
Moldavia,  on  which  wheat  never  grows,  but  which  the  page 
of  history  informs  us  were  inhabited  by  an  industrious 
agricultural  population  until  the  towns  were  destroyed  and 
the  people  exterminated  by  the  generals  of  Alp  Arslan  (the 
successor  of  Togul  Beg)  and  Malek  Shah." 

This  mighty  Turkish  Empire  of  Alp  Arslan   was    soon 


THE  CRESCENT  VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  45 

divided  into  three  secondary  kingdoms  :  Roum,  near  the 
Black  Sea, —  which  took  its  name  (as  Roumania  has  since 
done)  from  Rome, —  Syria,  and  Persia. 

About  1 2  70,  when  Saint  Louis  flung  his  noble  life  away 
upon  the  sands  of  Barbary,  when  Dante  was  a  little  boy  in 
Florence,  while  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines  were  distracting 
hapless  Italy,  and  while  Michael  Palaeologos,  a  clever  and 
ambitious  soldier,  having  freed  Constantinople  from  the 
temporary  dominion  of  the  Latins,  was  establishing  himself 
on  the  Byzantine  throne,  —  there  entered  the  kingdom  of 
Roum,  through  the  defiles  of  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
about  four  hundred  families,  forming  a  small  tribe,  led  by  a 
gallant  chief  of  Turkish  race.  He  had  a  son  called  Othman, 
whose  name  has  been  perpetuated  in  that  of  the  great 
Ottoman  Empire.  Othman's  fame  for  judgment  and  for 
justice  became  very  great.  One  celebrated  decision  of  his 
in  favor  of  a  Greek  Christian,  and  against  a  nobleman  of 
his  own  race,  extended  his  renown,  and  added  importance 
to  his  government.  He  never,  however,  became  more  than 
the  emir  of  a  province,  though,  according  to  a  Turkish 
tradition,  a  vision,  the  particulars  of  which  every  Turk  learns 
in  his  childhood,  was  early  vouchsafed  to  him.  In  it  he 
beheld  his  family  the  masters  of  Constantinople  ;  "which," 
says  the  Oriental  who  relates  this  legend,  "  is  placed  at  the 
junction  of  two  seas,  and  of  two  continents,  resembling  a 
noble  diamond  set  between  two  sapphire  stones  and  two 
emeralds."  Before  Othman  died,  his  great  son  Orkhan, 
in  1325,  had  conquered  Brusa  in  Anatolia  from  the  Greeks, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  power  of  Orkhan  differed  from  that  of  every  other 
conqueror.  It  was  not  based  on  nationality,  for  even  the 
four  hundred  families  who  had  followed  his  father  into 
Armenia,  and  thence  into  the  dominions  of  the  Greek 
Empire,  had  never  become  a  distinct  tribe. 

"  The  Ottoman  Empire  threatened  Europe  with  conquest ; 
Ottoman  armies  were  well  nigh  invincible  ;  the  Ottoman 
government  was  an  intelligent  despotism,  superior  to  any 


46       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XI XT  a  CENTURY. 

contemporary  government ;  but  during  the  period  of  Otto- 
man greatness  there  never  was  such  a  thing  as  an  Ottoman 
nation."  Five  centuries  of  Ottoman  power  in  Europe  rest 
solely  on  the  sagacity  and  foresight  of  Orkhan,  son  of  Oth- 
man  and  the  princes  of  his  family.  When  the  life  that  they 
infused  into  that  empire  of  "  all  nations  and  languages  " 
was  drained  out  of  the  body  politic  by  an  alteration  in  the 
traditions  of  its  government,  and  the  suppression  of  the 
Janissaries,  that  final  sickness  soon  set  in  of  which  we 
ourselves  may  possibly  witness  the  last  convulsive  throes. 

The  troops  of  Othman  had  been  irregular  horsemen. 
His  son  Orkhan  attempted  the  formation  of  a  body  of  in- 
fantry. He  found  his  followers,  however,  so  rude  and 
insubordinate  that  the  idea  occurred  to  him  of  educating 
his  troops  under  his  own  eye,  of  literally  forming  a  nursery 
of  soldiers  in  his  household,  of  owning  an  army  of  well- 
educated  slaves.  To  this  end  he  imposed  a  forced  tribute 
of  male  children  on  every  Christian  district  that  he  con- 
quered. This  tribute  was  exacted  until  1685,  when  it  was 
finally  abolished.  These  tribute  children  all  became  mem- 
bers of  the  sultan's  household.  They  lost  all  ties  of  race, 
of  faith,  of  family,  —  their  sole  law  was  their  master's  will. 
They  were  ready  to  defend  him  against  every  enemy. 
Like  faithful  animals  they  looked  only  to  the  hand  that  fed 
them.  They  formed  the  celebrated  corps  of  Janissaries, 
first  planned  by  Orkhan,  fully  organized  by  his  son  after 
him,  and  abolished  by  massacre,  after  vain  efforts  for  their 
reform,  in  1826,  a  date  which  falls  within  this  history  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

With  this  corps  Amurath,  the  successor  of  Orkhan,  sub- 
dued nearly  the  whole  of  the  present  Turkey  in  Europe, 
leaving  the  Greek  emperor  little  more  than  his  capital. 
He  then  marched  against  those  provinces,  Wallachia, 
Servia,  and  Bulgaria,  whose  shores  are  washed  by  the 
Danube,  and  everywhere  he  went  he  demanded  contri- 
butions of  male  children.  By  the  laws  of  the  Koran,  to 
the  victor  belonged  the  fifth  part  of  all  the  property  of  the 


THE  CRESCENT  VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  47 

conquered.  This  was  interpreted  to  include  a  fifth  part 
of  the  population.  The  conqueror  compounded  for  male 
children,  seven  or  eight  years  of  age.  "  Let  them  be  called 
Janissaries,"  said  a  dervish,  who,  with  great  ceremony,  gave 
them  his  blessing,  —  "  Yeni-sheri,  or  new  soldiers  !  May 
their  countenances  be  always  bright,  their  hands  victo- 
rious, their  swords  keen  !  " 

Strange  to  say,  this  horrible  tribute  does  not  at  first 
appear  to  have  been  intolerable  to  the  Greek  Christians. 
Whether  they  accepted  the  fortune  of  war  and  were  thank- 
ful to  have  universal  servitude  compounded  by  such  a 
sacrifice,  or  whether,  their  country  being  laid  desolate,  they 
were  willing  to  see  their  children  secured  against  the  horrors 
of  starvation,  we  do  not  know ;  but,  as  a  modern  writer 
says,  "had  the  Greek  Christians  and  the  heads  of  the 
Greek  Church  given  these  very  children  as  good  an  educa- 
cation  as  Orkhan  gave  them  as  his  slaves,  all  Europe  might 
have  been  spared  the  Turkish  question." 

The  boys  who  were  the  victims  of  this  tribute,  were  col- 
lected once  in  five  years,  by  officers  deputed  for  the  pur- 
pose. Their  numbers  were  also  increased  by  children  taken 
in  war,  and  presented  to  the  sultan  by  his  generals  and 
pashas,  so  that,  besides  Greeks,  Albanians,  Servians,  Bul- 
garians, Bosnians,  Moldavians,  and  Wallachians,  the  corps 
frequently  included  Poles,  Bohemians,  Russians,  Germans, 
and  Italians.  These  were  at  first  lodged  in  the  Sultan's 
palace,  and  the  first  step  was  to  instruct  them  in  the 
Mahommedan  religion.  So  carefully  was  this  done  that 
while  devotion  to  the  Sultan  was  their  duty,  devotion  to 
their  Prophet  became  their  sole  enthusiasm.  During  the 
first  stage  of  their  education  the  disposition  and  mental 
capacity  of  each  was  carefully  studied.  They  then  entered 
on  a  course  of  general  instruction  interspersed  with  severe 
bodily  toil.  At  length  they  were  divided  into  several 
classes.  Those  who  had  been  chiefly  trained  to  bodily 
endurance  became  Janissaries ;  those  who  were  believed 
capable  of  higher  things  were  educated  to  fill  posts  in  the 


48        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

administration  of  the  government,  with  the  prospect  of 
being  advanced  to  the  highest  offices  of  state.  From  1453 
to  1617  out  of  forty- eight  grand  viziers,  thirty  were  either 
renegades  or  the  children  of  Christian  parents,  brought  up 
in  the  Mahommedan  religion ;  four  only  were  of  Ottoman 
or  Seljouk  families ;  the  other  fourteen,  who  had  been  born 
Mussulmans,  were  not  of  Turkish  race. 

The  discipline  of  both  classes  of  boys  was  extremely 
severe.  Those  destined  to  be  Janissaries  were  inured  to 
every  kind  of  bodily  privation.  They  were  employed  in 
military  exercises  during  the  day,  and  at  night  they  slept 
in  a  long  lighted  hall,  with  an  overseer  walking  up  and 
down  to  see  that  no  one  stirred.  The  higher  class,  des- 
tined to  be  men  of  the  pen,  were  separated  from  the  rest, 
but  were  kept  no  less  strictly.  At  the  end  of  three  years  of 
training  in  the  "  higher  education,"  they  had  the  choice 
either  to  remain  and  ascend  in  the  civil  service  of  their 
master,  or  to  enter  into  one  of  the  first  four  corps  of  spahis, 
the  immediate  body-guard  of  the  Sultan. 

A  kulak,  or  cap  of  dingy  white  felt,  of  which  a  strip 
hung  down  behind,  while  the  front  was  adorned  by  a  tuft 
of  heron's-feathers,  was  the  distinguishing  mark  of  a  Janis- 
sary. A  fire-lock,  a  pistol,  a  mace,  a  scimitar,  and  an  axe 
were  his  equipments,  and  he  prided  himself,  not  only  on 
the  temper  of  his  weapons,  but  upon  their  elaborate 
ornamentation. 

Besides  the  standards  and  horse-tails  planted  before  the 
tent  door  of  their  commander,  each  regiment  had  the 
caldron  in  which  the  soldiers  made  their  soup  carried 
before  it  on  parade  or  in  battle.  The  loss  of  its  caldron 
was  the  greatest  misfortune  that  could  befall  a  regiment ; 
and  on  the  rare  occasions  when  they  were  taken  in  battle, 
all  the  officers  were  cashiered,  and  the  regiment  publicly 
disgraced. 

After  the  power  of  the  sultans  began  to  decline,  the  pride 
and  insubordination  of  the  Janissaries  became  intolerable. 
As  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  says,  writing  from  Turkey 


THE  CRESCENT  VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  49 

to  Mr.  Alexander  Pope  in  1717,  during  her  husband's 
embassy  to  Constantinople  :  "  These  troops  have  an  abso- 
lute authority  here,  and  their  conduct  carries  much  more 
the  aspect  of  rebellion  than  the  appearance  of  subordi- 
nation. They  are  commanded  by  a  Pasha  Seraskier  (that 
is,  General),  though  the  last  expression  is  hardly  just,  for,  to 
say  truth,  the  pasha  is  commanded  by  the  Janissaries." 

For  several  generations  the  Ottoman  sultans,  who  were 
educated  in  much  the  same  manner  as  their  tribute  children, 
were  even  more  remarkable  for  their  sagacity,  liberality,  and 
occasional  generosity,  than  for  their  talents  and  success. 

While  Orkhan  pursued  his  conquests  in  Asia  Minor,  some 
of  his  emirs  fitted  out  ships,  and  proceeded  to  plunder 
the  Greek  islands  and  the  coasts  of  the  Morea.  One  of 
them  indeed  became  a  model  pirate,  the  chivalrous  pro- 
tector of  a  Greek  empress  and  her  family,  the  friend  and 
sworn  brother  in  arms  of  her  husband,  the  Emperor  John 
Cantacuzene.  His  propensities  for  plunder  were,  however, 
ineradicable.  Notwithstanding  his  "  thousand  virtues,"  his 
name  is  linked  in  history  with  some  fatal  advice  he  gave  on 
his  deathbed  to  the  Greek  emperor.  He  exhorted  his 
friend  to  cultivate  an  alliance  with  Orkhan. 

The  Greek  Empire  was  distracted  at  that  time  (about  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century)  by  quarrels  between  the 
Palaeologi  and  the  Cantacuzeni.  Indeed  there  were  then 
two  emperors  and  three  empresses  at  Constantinople  dis- 
puting with  each  other  the  Byzantine  throne,  and  this  at  a 
time  when  a  young  prince  of  one  of  their  houses  was  driven 
to  exclaim  :  "  Alexander  complained  that  his  father  would 
leave  him  nothing  to  conquer ;  my  predecessors  will  soon 
leave  me  nothing  to  lose." 

Before,  however,  any  arrangement  had  been  entered  into 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  five  personages  who,  in 
1347,  agreed  to  share  the  Byzantine  throne,  the  flames  of 
civil  discord  had  been  raging  for  six  years  throughout  the 
Greek  Empire,  and  the  Bulgarians,  Servians,  and  Turks 
were  invited  by  the  several  parties  to  the  quarrel  to  take 

4 


50       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

sides  in  their  disputes.  The  advice  and  influence  of  Can- 
tacuzene's  buccaneering  friend  seems  to  have  turned  the 
scale.  Orkhan  proffered  Cantacuzene  his  alliance,  and 
Cantacuzene  accepted  it,  even  listening  to  a  proposal  that 
he  would  give  Orkhan  his  daughter  Theodora  in  marriage ; 
on  which  condition  alone  Orkhan  promised  to  fulfil  toward 
him  the  duties  of  a  subject  and  a  son.  It  was  stipulated 
that  Theodora  should  continue  in  the  exercise  of  her  own 
religion,  and  the  marriage  took  place  with  great  magnifi- 
cence, but  with  no  religious  ceremonies,  on  the  shores  of 
the  Hellespont.  Theodora's  life,  though  led  thenceforth  in 
a  harem,  was  one  of  devotion  and  charity. 

Orkhan,  in  spite  of  his  marriage  with  a  Christian  lady, 
insisted  on  receiving  permission  to  expose  his  Christian 
captives  for  sale  in  the  markets  of  Constantinople.  Such 
scenes,  and  the  unnatural  marriage  of  a  princess  of  the 
reigning  family,  assisted  further  to  disorganize  what  re- 
mained of  the  Greek  empire.  In  1341  (that  is,  ten  years 
after  the  death  of  Robert  Bruce,  and  five  years  before 
the  battle  of  Cressy)  John  Cantacuzene  abdicated.  His 
last  advice  to  his  countrymen  was  "  to  decline  rash  con- 
tests with  the  Turks,  and  to  compare  their  own  weakness 
with  the  hardihood  and  valor  displayed  by  that  great  peo- 
ple." He  then  retired  into  one  of  the  monasteries  of 
Mount  Athos,  and  took  no  further  part  in  public  affairs, 
except  to  urge  a  union  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches, 
a  union  which  at  that  time  there  was  some  probability  of 
seeing  accomplished,  under  the  auspices  of  the  pope  at 
Avignon. 

The  Emperor  John  Palaeologos,  pupil  and  successor  of 
John  Cantacuzene,  was  the  son  of  a  princess  of  Savoy 
who  had  refused  the  hand  of  Charles  le  Bel  of  France,  and 
had  married  the  Greek  emperor.  She  brought  her  son  up 
with  a  prepossession  in  favor  of  the  Roman  Church,  and 
partly  from  conviction,  partly  from  the  hope  of  foreign 
sympathy  and  foreign  aid,  he  offered  to  bring  back  his 
church  and  people  to  the  Catholic  fold.  To  this  end  he 


THE  CRESCENT  VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  51 

made  a  visit  to  the  West,  but  was  not  successful.  As  he 
was  returning  home  he  was  made  prisoner  by  the  Venetians, 
to  whom  he  already  owed  large  sums  of  money.  His  sec- 
ond son,  Manuel,  on  hearing  this,  at  once  sold  or  mort- 
gaged all  he  possessed,  embarked  for  Venice,  ransomed 
his  father,  and  pledged  his  own  freedom  as  security  for 
what  remained  unpaid  of  the  previous  debt. 

But  present  or  absent  in  his  dominions,  John  Palaeologos 
had  neither  the  vigor  nor  the  capacity  needed  to  protect 
the  Eastern  Empire,  and  during  his  reign  the  Turks  made 
rapid  conquests. 

Soliman,  the  gallant  eldest  son  of  Orkhan,  was  killed  by 
a  fall  from  his  horse  while  throwing  the  jereed,  and  Orkhan 
died  of  grief  for  the  loss  of  so  valiant  a  son.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  second  son,  called  Murad  by  the  Turks,  and 
Amurath  by  Christians.  Amurath  perfected  the  discipline 
of  the  Janissaries,  captured  Adrianople  (a  city  only  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  distant  from  Constantinople)  and 
made  it  the  capital  of  his  empire.  This  conquest  roused 
some  spirit  among  the  Latin  Christians  of  the  East,  though 
it  was  very  quietly  submitted  to  by  those  of  the  Greek 
communion.  The  Servians,  Hungarians,  and  Wallachians, 
who  were  Catholics,  in  obedience  to  a  mandate  from  Pope 
Urban  V.,  combined  their  forces  to  drive  the  Turks  back 
into  Asia.  They  were  surprised  in  their  camp,  however, 
and  completely  defeated. 

John  Palaeologos  made  no  effort  to  recover  Adrianople, 
the  second  city  of  his  empire ;  he  even  sought  the  friend- 
ship of  Amurath,  and  in  point  of  fact  became  his  vassal. 
Amurath,  however,  having  undertaken  an  expedition  into 
Servia,  was  treacherously  slain  at  the  close  of  a  victorious 
day,  by  a  Servian  prince  who  was  lying  mortally  wounded 
on  the  field  of  battle. 

His  successor,  Bajazet  the  Thunderbolt,  first  ordered  the 
execution  of  all  princes  of  his  own  race,  and  then  reduced 
the  Servians  to  obedience.  He  changed  the  title  of  emir 
to  that  of  sultan.  He  conquered  almost  all  that  was  left 


52       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

of  the  Greek  Empire,  and  all  the  fertile  regions  lying  round 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea. 

After  defeating  the  Hungarian  king  in  a  pitched  battle, 
in  which  a  brilliant  band  of  Western  princes  and  knights 
fought  desperately,  but  without  due  discipline,  against  the 
infidel,  Bajazet  threatened  to  besiege  Belgrade.  Among  his 
prisoners  was  the  Sieur  de  Boucicault,  who  afterward,  when 
Constantinople  was  first  attacked  by  the  Turks,  defended  it 
successfully.  He  governed  Genoa,  invaded  Asia,  and  died 
at  Agincourt.  He  held  pen  as  well  as  sword,  and  wrote  a 
narrative  of  his  captivity,  extolling  the  generosity  and  chiv- 
alry of  the  Grand  Turk  on  every  page.  The  gay  cavaliers 
of  France  and  Burgundy  proved  valuable  prizes  to  the 
Turkish  sultan.  Besides  a  ransom  of  two  hundred  thousand 
ducats  paid  for  the  survivors,  the  king  of  Cyprus  sent,  to 
secure  their  good  treatment  in  captivity,  a  golden  salt-cellar 
worth  ten  thousand  ducats ;  while  Charles  VI.  (who  was 
sane  at  the  time  of  this  calamity)  sent  a  cast  of  Norwegian 
hawks,  six  horse-loads  of  scarlet  cloth  and  of  fine  linen, 
besides  arras  tapestry  representing  the  battles  of  Alexander. 
It  had  been  stipulated  when  ransom  was  paid  for  the  French 
captives,  that  they  should  swear  never  again  to  bear  arms 
against  their  conquerors;  "but  Bajazet,"  says  Boucicault, 
"  absolved  us,  saying  to  the  heir  of  Burgundy  :  '  Thou  art 
young  and  mayst  be  ambitious  of  effacing  the  disgrace  or 
the  misfortune  of  thy  first  chivalry.  Assemble  thy  powers, 
proclaim  thy  design,  and  be  assured  that  Bajazet  will  rejoice 
to  meet  thee  a  second  time  in  battle.'  " 

In  1399  Bajazet's  ambition  prompted  him  to  subdue 
Constantinople,  but  he  abstained  on  the  advice  of  his  grand 
vizier,  who  represented  that  such  an  enterprise  might  unite 
the  princes  of  Europe  in  another  formidable  crusade!  Soon 
after  he  was  checked  in  his  career  of  Western  conquest  by 
tidings  from  the  East,  which  called  his  attention  to  Asia. 

About  thirty  years  before  (that  is  during  the  latter  years 
of  the  Black  Prince)  a  mighty  conqueror,  Timour  the  Tar- 
tar, better  known  as  Tamerlane,  had  appeared  in  Central 


THE  CRESCENT   VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  53 

Asia.  He  advanced  so  far  to  the  northwest  as  to  threaten 
Moscow,  conquered  Bagdad  and  Shiraz,  left  a  record  of 
his  passage  in  Siberia,  and  subdued  those  parts  of  Central 
Asia  which,  until  lately,  when  the  Russians  began  their 
Trans-Caspian  Railway,  have  been  rarely  visited  and  little 
known.  Thence  Timour  passed  over  into  Hindostan  by 
way  of  the  Indus,  advancing  in  the  track  of  Alexander  the 
Great.  He  soon,  however,  overpassed  his  Macedonian 
predecessor.  He  reached  Delhi,  and  pushed  forward  to 
the  sources  of  the  Ganges.  He  there  received  news  that 
Sultan  Bajazet,  indignant  at  his  having  espoused  the  cause 
of  some  rebellious  chiefs,  was  preparing  to  invade  the  west- 
ern frontier  of  his  dominions.  After  some  correspondence, 
more  like  the  vaunts  of  the  Homeric  chiefs  than  diplomatic 
intercourse  in  modern  times,  in  which  the  Turkish  sultan  is 
styled  the  Kaisser  of  Rome,  the  angry  conquerors  prepared 
to  measure  their  strength  in  a  pitched  battle. 

Timour  was  a  zealous  Mussulman,  but  he  belonged  to 
that  unorthodox  section  of  the  faith  which  is  still  the  religion 
of  Persia,  and  reveres  the  memories  of  the  martyrs  Ali  and 
Houssain.  His  wars  with  the  Saracens  and  Turks  became 
wars  of  religion.  His  army  met  that  of  Sultan  Bajazet  in 
1402  at  Angora  in  Anatolia.  The  Turkish  army  had  four 
hundred  thousand  men,  and  in  its  ranks  were  twenty  thou- 
sand men-at-arms  from  the  countries  of  Western  Europe, 
besides  forty  thousand  Janissaries.  But  in  spite  of  the 
conduct  of  the  sultan,  who,  though  suffering  from  gout,  and 
but  ill-mounted,  displayed,  it  is  said,  all  the  qualities  of  a 
soldier  and  a  chief, — in  spite  of  the  splendid  charges  of 
the  Europeans,  and  the  faithful  self-devotion  of  the  Janis- 
saries, —  victory  decided  in  favor  of  Timour.  Bajazet  was 
captured,  and  a  body  of  Tartar  cavalry  pursued  his  flying 
army  to  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora. 

Gibbon  has  sifted  the  old  story  of  the  iron  cage  in  which 
Timour  imprisoned  Bajazet,  and  finds  it  probably  true. 
Why  should  it  not  be  true?  Timour  was  a  conqueror 
always  on  the  march,  who  in  the  case  of  so  illustrious  a 


54       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

captive  must  have  felt  the  necessity  of  a  portable  prison. 
Nearly  a  hundred  years  after  this  date  Louis  XI.  held 
Cardinal  de  Balue  in  similar  confinement,  and  the  Countess 
of  Buchan  was  so  punished  for  having  crowned  the  Bruce 
in  Scotland  in  1306. 

The  hordes  of  Timour  were  happily  unable  to  cross  the 
Hellespont,  which  was  defended  by  the  Turks,  nor  could 
they  cross  the  Bosphorus,  which  was  defended  by  the  Greek 
emperor. 

Soliman,  the  son  of  Bajazet,  however,  humbled  himself 
to  solicit  the  clemency  of  the  conqueror,  and  the  Greek 
emperor  transferred  to  Timour's  military  chest  the  tribute 
he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  paying  to  the  sultan.  Ambas- 
sadors from  Egypt,  Arabia,  India,  Tartary,  Russia,  Spain, 
and  even  France,  visited  the  court  of  Timour  at  Samarcand 
before  he  set  out  on  his  last  expedition  to  China.  He  died 
upon  the  march  in  1403,  and  his  tomb  is  near  the  present 
terminus  of  the  Russian  Trans- Caspian  Railway.  His  effigy 
as  the  Great  Mogul  adorns  every  pack  of  playing-cards 
printed  in  England.1 

The  European  dominions  of  the  Turkish  sultans  now  fell 
into  confusion  and  anarchy.  Had  the  Latins  joined  the 
Greeks  at  this  crisis  they  might  have  driven  back  the  infidel 
to  Asia.  But  the  dislike  that  in  that  age  was  felt  for  unortho- 
dox Christians  was  stronger  than  that  inspired  by  such 
Mussulman  conquerors  as  Othman  and  the  descendants  of 
his  sons. 

During  the  great  anarchy  that  reigned  throughout  the 
East  for  fifty  years  Constantinople  was  twice  besieged  by 
the  Turks,  but  the  strength  of  its  walls  resisted  them. 
Gibbon  says  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  :  "  The  massy  trunk 
was  bent  to  the  ground,  but  no  sooner  did  the  hurricane 
pass  away  than  it  rose  with  fresh  vigor,  and  more  lively 
vegetation."  When  the  Turks  attacked  Constantinople  for 

1  Playing-cards  were  first  invented  about  this  period.  Timour 
himself  was  a  great  chess-player. 


THE  CRESCENT  VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  55 

the  third  time,  in  1453,  they  had  been  instructed  by  the 
Genoese  in  the  use  of  cannon. 

Manuel  Palaeologos,  the  dutiful  son  who  took  his  imperial 
father  out  of  pawn  to  the  Venetians,  reigned  at  Constanti- 
nople during  nearly  all  these  fifty  years.  His  efforts,  and 
those  of  his  son  John  Palaeologos  II.,  were  directed  not 
toward  the  renovation  of  their  decaying  empire,  but  toward 
accommodating  the  disputes  between  the  Latin  and  Greek 
churches,  and  so  procuring  the  support  and  countenance 
of  Roman  Catholic  princes.  Both  Manuel  and  his  son 
made  pilgrimages  of  supplication  to  the  popes  at  Avignon. 
Manuel  even  passed  over  into  England,  where  he  induced 
Henry  IV.  to  take  the  cross  for  another  crusade. 

"  I  had  a  purpose  now 
To  lead  out  many  to  the  Holy  Land," 

says  Shakespeare's  Henry  IV.  when  dying  in  the  Jerusalem 
chamber,  and  his  gallant  son,  who  cherished  the  same 
purpose,  alludes  to  Turkish  history  in  his  speech  after  his 
father's  death,  when  he  says,  desiring  to  reassure  his  four 
brothers :  — 

"  This  is  the  English  —  not  the  Turkish  court ; 
Not  Amurath  an  Amurath  succeeds, 
But  Harry  Harry." 

John  Palaeologos  II.  reached  Italy  in  1438,  just  as  the 
papal  court  was  on  the  eve  of  returning  from  Avignon. 
After  delay  and  disappointment  he  succeeded  in  effecting 
a  treaty  with  the  pope,  which  was  to  secure  him  help  from 
Catholic  Christendom,  and  bring  the  Greek  Church  into 
subjection  to  that  of  Rome.  Several  of  the  Greek  bishops 
were  made  cardinals,  and  some  of  them  hastened  to  do 
their  part  in  carrying  out  the  treaty,  the  news  of  which 
was  far  from  being  welcomed  by  all  Greek  Christians. 
Isidor,  the  primate  of  Russia,  who  had  been  created  a 
cardinal  and  legate,  was  at  once  deposed  by  his  clergy. 
The  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem,  whose 
sees  were  under  the  protection  of  the  Turks,  assembled  a 


56       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

synod,  denounced  the  agreement  entered  into  by  Palse- 
ologos,  condemned  the  creed  and  councils  of  the  Roman 
Church,  and  threatened  the  Greek  emperor  with  excom- 
munication. 

Pope  Eugenius,  on  his  part,  did  what  he  could  to  gather 
together  forces  for  a  crusade ;  but  France  and  England 
were  exhausted  by  long  wars,  and,  though  Frederick  of 
Germany  promised  his  assistance,  he  entered  into  the 
scheme  with  no  enthusiasm.  Philip  of  Burgundy  (father  of 
Charles  the  Bold,  brother  of  the  prince  so  courteously  treated 
by  Sultan  Bajazet)  sent  a  contingent.  Venice  and  Genoa, 
for  once,  united  their  fleets.  Poland  and  Hungary  sent 
their  light  horsemen,  and  what  was  of  more  importance  they 
contributed  a  hero.  The  Servian  Catholics  promised  to 
rise  against  their  Turkish  masters ;  an  Armenian  prince 
offered  to  make  a  diversion  in  Asia,  which  would  favor  the 
Christians;  a  few  knights  of  renown  from  France  and 
Germany  led  their  own  followers ;  and  the  Greek  emperor 
promised  to  guard  the  Bosphorus  and  to  attack  the  Turks 
when  occasion  offered. 

During  this  time  the  four  sons  of  Bajazet  had  been 
engaged  in  strife  for  his  inheritance.  It  was  at  last  grasped 
by  Mohammed  the  youngest  and  the  ablest  of  the  family. 
His  son  Amurath  II.  succeeded  him.  The  Greek  emperor 
Manuel  Palaeologos,  hoping  to  profit  by  civil  discord  among 
the  Turks,  broke  his  word  by  releasing  from  prison  Mus- 
tapha,  a  rival  claimant  for  the  throne,  who  was,  or  called 
himself,  the  son  of  Bajazet.  Amurath,  however,  triumphed 
over  this  competitor,  and  though  unable  to  revenge  himself 
upon  the  emperor  of  Constantinople  at  the  time,  bore 
him  a  deep  grudge  for  his  treachery. 

Ladislas,  who  was  then  king,  both  of  Poland  and  of 
Hungary,  believing  himself  to  be  acting  in  concert  with  the 
crusaders  of  the  pope,  led  an  army  of  his  confederated 
subjects  in  1444,  as  far  as  Sofia,  the  capital  of  Bulgaria. 
Two  battles  were  fought,  in  which  the  Christians  were 
victorious  through  the  skill  and  valor  of  John  Hunniades, 


THE   CRESCENT   VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  57 

a  young  chief  of  Wallachia.  After  these  victories  Ladislas 
went  back  to  Belgrade  for  the  winter,  and  there  received 
a  deputation  from  Sultan  Amurath,  soliciting  peace.  The 
Turks  promised  to  restore  Servia,  and  to  withdraw  from  the 
frontier  of  Hungary.  These  terms  were  accepted,  and  a 
truce  for  ten  years  was  concluded.  But  the  pope's  legate 
was  greatly  disappointed,  and  hardly  was  the  treaty  con- 
cluded when  news  reached  Belgrade  that  the  Armenians 
were  in  full  revolt  in  Asia,  that  the  Greek  emperor  had  in- 
vaded Thrace,  that  the  combined  fleets  of  Venice,  Genoa,  and 
Burgundy,  had  passed  the  Hellespont,  and  the  allies,  ignorant 
of  any  agreement  between  Ladislas  and  the  sultan,  demanded 
the  co-operation  of  the  victorious  Polish  and  Hungarian  army. 

The  legate,  in  an  eager  speech,  absolved  the  Christians 
from  all  sin  of  perjury  should  they  break  their  oaths  to  the 
infidel.  In  the  very  room  where  the  treaty  with  the  sultan 
had  been  solemnly  sworn  to  a  few  days  before,  war  was 
again  declared  against  the  Turks.  But  the  army  of  Ladislas 
had  been  already  broken  up.  The  German  and  French 
knights  had  departed  before  the  first  treaty  was  signed, 
refusing  to  make  terms  with  unbelievers.  The  Poles  were 
never  willing  long  to  keep  the  field.  A  Wallachian  chief 
remarked  that  the  remnant  of  the  army  remaining  with 
Ladislas  was  hardly  more  numerous  than  the  hunting 
retinue  which  attended  the  sultan. 

The  confederated  army,  however,  which  was  composed 
entirely  of  Roman  Catholics,  marched  through  Bulgaria, 
burning  as  it  went  the  cottages  of  the  Greek  Christians. 
At  Varna,  near  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  it  met  the  Turks, 
commanded  by  ex-Sultan  Amurath,  who  had  abdicated  in 
favor  of  his  son  Mohammed  II. 

Amurath  marched  with  a  copy  of  the  violated  treaty 
borne  before  him  as  a  banner,  and  it  is  said  that  he  called 
upon  the  God  of  the  Christians  before  the  battle  to  punish 
the  perfidy  of  His  followers. 

Ladislas  perished  in  a  brilliant  charge,  and  the  cardinal 
legate  also  fell.  A  column  was  erected  by  the  victorious 


58       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Amurath  to  the  memory  of  Ladislas,  commending  his 
valor,  and  recording  his  unhappy  fate.  Hunniades  fled  to 
Hungary,  where  at  first  he  was  made  regent,  and  after- 
wards king.  He  "  spent  his  life  in  battle  with  the  Turk," 
whom  he  repulsed,  a  month  before  his  death,  from  before 
the  walls  of  Belgrade. 

The  crusading  forces  returned  to  western  Europe  with- 
out having  accomplished  any  deliverance  for  the  Greek 
emperor.  But  southern  Greece  was  up  in  arms  against 
the  Turk,  and  Albania,  peopled  by  a  race  descended  from 
the  Macedonians,  was  making  rapid  progress  in  insurrection 
under  George  Castriot,  better  known  as  Scanderbeg,  — 
which  is  Turkish  for  Prince  Alexander.  He  is  the  only  one 
of  the  tribute  children  converted  into  Janissaries  whom  we 
know  to  have  retained  any  memory  of  his  Christian  faith  or 
friends.  For  twenty-three  years  after  he  abjured  the 
Prophet,  and  his  allegiance  to  the  sultan,  he  fought  the 
Turks'as  the  avenger  of  his  country  and  her  wrongs.  At 
last,  for  some  reason  that  we  do  not  know  (probably  because 
his  resources  were  exhausted),  he  sought  refuge  in  Venetian 
territory.  The  Janissaries,  who  soon  after  his  death  had 
the  opportunity  of  plundering  his  tomb,  had  his  bones  set 
in  gold,  and  wore  them  as  amulets.  His  son  escaped  to 
Naples,  where  his  blood  still  flows  in  the  veins  of  some  of 
the  noblest  families. 

Four  years  after  the  defeat  of  the  Christians  at  Varna, 
the  Emperor  John  Palaeologos  II.  suddenly  died,  and,  after 
a  short  interval  of  disputed  succession,  was  succeeded  by 
Constantine  Palaeologos,  not  only  the  last  and  best,  but  the 
sole  hero  of  his  family.  Our  knowledge  of  him  is  drawn 
largely  from  the  memoirs  of  his  chamberlain,  Phranza  ;  but 
all  accounts  of  him  agree. 

At  the  time  of  Constantine's  accession  (1448)  Moham- 
med II.  was  already  making  preparations  to  besiege 
Constantinople  on  a  scale  of  unparalleled  magnitude. 
Cannon,  just  begun  to  be  used  in  war,  were  cast  of  a  size 
never  again  equalled  until  our  own  day.  One  cannon 


THE   CRESCENT   VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  59 

threw  a  ball  weighing  six  hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  and 
was  large  enough  to  give  shelter  in  after  years  to  an  abscond- 
ing tailor.  Soldiers  were  recruited  in  every  Mohammedan 
country,  a  powerful  navy  was  put  afloat,  and  immense 
magazines  were  formed. 

Constantinople  meantime  was  a  scene  of  cowardly  despair, 
discord,  and  confusion.  In  the  doomed  city  seemed  to 
shine  only  one  noble  soul.  In  the  spring  of  1453  Moham- 
med II.  appeared  before  its  gates  with  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  men.  Constantine,  after  using  every  exer- 
tion, could  only  raise  a  force  of  forty-nine  hundred  Greeks ; 
these  were,  however,  reinforced  by  two  thousand  men-at- 
arms  from  western  Europe,  under  the  conduct  of  Gian 
Gustiniani,  a  native  of  Genoa.  But  the  princes  of  Europe 
stood  aloof.  The  pope,  indignant  at  the  obstinacy  with  which 
the  Greek  Christians  refused  to  admit  his  supremacy,  prophe- 
sied the  success  of  the  Infidels ;  the  princes  of  the  Morea 
and  of  the  Islands  of  the  ^Egean  affected  cold  neutrality. 

Constantinople  is  situated  on  a  triangular  piece  of 
ground,  and  formed  at  that  day  almost  a  semi-amphitheatre. 
On  its  northern  side  is  its  noble  harbor,  the  Golden 
Horn ;  on  the  south,  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  The  west  land- 
line,  or  base  of  the  triangle,  extended  in  a  slightly  curved 
line  from  the  Sea  of  Marmora  to  the  harbor.  This  western 
wall,  which  was  double,  was  nearly  six  miles  long.  It  was 
old,  but  was  defended  by  a  deep  moat.  The  side  of  the 
city  toward  the  sea  was  protected  by  a  strong  current; 
while  the  harbor  was  defended  by  a  mighty  chain  sup- 
ported on  several  large  vessels.  The  first  efforts  of  the 
Turks  were  directed  against  the  land  side.  They  not  only 
relied  on  their  enormous  cannon,  but  appear  to  have 
employed  something  like  the  modern  mitrailleuses.  The 
cannon  and  the  mitrailleuses  were  supplemented  by  the 
catapults  and  moving  towers  of  antiquity.  By  the  com- 
bined use  of  such  arts  of  annoyance,  an  immense  breach 
was  effected  in  the  outer  wall ;  but  Gustiniani  and  the 
emperor,  by  great  personal  exertions,  repaired  the  damage 


6O        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

before  daylight,  and  destroyed  the  wooden  tower  relied  on 
oy  the  besiegers. 

A  few  days  afterward  five  merchant  vessels  laden  with  sup- 
plies broke  through  the  Turkish  fleet,  which  was  composed 
only  of  innumerable  small  boats  and  a  few  war-galleys. 
In  vain  did  Sultan  Mohammed,  sitting  on  horseback  on 
the  shore,  endeavor  by  shouts,  gestures,  and  reproaches  to 
animate  his  followers ;  the  Christian  ships  swept  on,  and 
safely  anchored  within  the  chain  of  the  harbor.  But  the 
cannon  of  the  Turks  were  directed  by  a  Christian  engineer, 
and  the  ambassador  of  Hungary,  relying  on  a  prophesy  that 
the  capture  of  Constantinople  should  be  the  last  of  the 
Turkish  conquests,  was  in  the  Ottoman  camp  directing  the 
operations  of  the  Infidel.  The  reduction  of  the  city,  how- 
ever, appeared  hopeless,  unless  an  attack  could  be  made 
both  from  the  harbor  and  the  land.  Mohammed  (resolved 
that  nothing  should  be  impossible  where  he  was  concerned) 
determined  to  carry  his  fleet  overland  six  miles,  and  launch 
it  in  the  harbor,  between  the  great  boom  and  the  city. 
Relying  on  the  supineness  of  the  Genoese,  who,  inhabiting 
the  suburb  of  Galata,  might  have  obstructed  the  passage, 
the  sultan  in  ten  days  constructed  a  plank-road  made  slip- 
pery with  grease  and  with  vast  quantities  of  millet.  Fifty 
light  galleys  were  landed  on  this  road,  placed  on  rollers, 
and  drawn  forward  by  men  and  pulleys.  Every  vessel  had 
its  sails  set  to  a  favoring  breeze,  and  in  the  course  of  one 
night  this  Turkish  fleet  surmounted  an  elevation,  steered 
over  the  plain,  and  was  launched  into  the  harbor.  In  vain 
the  Greeks  now  tried  to  burn  this  fleet ;  the  insufficient  gar- 
rison was  too  weak  to  sustain  a  double  attack,  and  all  hope 
for  Constantinople  was  over. 

Still  Constantine  refused  to  yield.  The  sultan  offered 
him  safety,  riches,  and  an  honorable  retirement.  He  de- 
clined to  make  any  terms  which  included  the  surrender  of 
his  capital.  May  29,  the  53d  day  of  the  siege,  was  fixed 
on  as  propitious  for  the  final  assault.  Mohammed  promised 
his  men  the  slaves  and  the  spoil,  reserving  to  himself  the 


THE  CRESCENT   VERSUS  CHRISTENDOM.  6 1 

buildings  of  the  city.  On  the  night  of  May  28  the  Turkish 
camp  was  all  ablaze  with  bonfires. 

That  night,  within  the  walls  of  the  doomed  city,  the  no- 
blest of  the  Greeks  and  the  bravest  of  their  allies  met  in  the 
palace  at  the  summons  of  Constantine.  He  made  them  a 
last  speech.  They  wept  together,  and  kissed  each  other. 
Then  each  commander  went  forth  calmly  to  his  post,  and 
the  emperor  entered  the  cathedral  of  St.  Sophia.  There 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated  for  the  last  time,  the 
emperor  and  his  few  guards  kneeling  at  midnight  to  receive 
the  elements  with  prayers  and  tears.  Then  Constantine, 
taking  leave  of  his  own  household,  and  imploring  the  for- 
giveness of  any  he  might  have  wronged,  mounted  his 
horse,  and  went  forth  before  sunrise.  For  two  hours  his 
voice  was  heard  above  the  roar  of  the  assault,  encouraging 
his  soldiers.  The  sultan's  troops  from  Anatolia  and  from 
Roum  fell  by  hundreds,  and  their  bodies  made  a  bridge 
across  the  ditch  over  which  the  Janissaries  at  last  mounted 
the  breach  under  the  eye  of  their  sovereign  and  com- 
mander. At  this  moment  Gian  Gustiniani,  —  the  brave 
Genoese  chief,  —  was  wounded  by  an  arrow  in  his  hand. 
The  extreme  pain  of  the  wound  overcame  his  power  of  en- 
durance. In  vain  the  emperor  implored  him  to  disregard 
his  anguish.  He  passed  to  the  rear.  The  foreign  troops 
lost  heart.  Hassan,  a  giant  Janissary,  with  twelve  comrades 
scaled  the  breach. 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  Greek  people  in  this 
struggle  with  the  Turks,  the  courage  of  the  self-devoted 
band  of  friends  and  nobles  who  drew  around  Constantine 
should  never  be  forgotten.  The  last  words  of  the  emperor 
that  history  has  recorded  were  :  "  Cannot  there  be  found  a 
Christian  to  cut  off  my  head?  " 

The  Turkish  forces  poured  into  the  city ;  the  multitude 
rushed  into  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia.  Ducas,  a  French- 
man, who  was  an  eye-witness,  shall  tell  the  tale  :  — 

"  The  Turks,  having  reached  the  cathedral,  cut  down  the  gate 
with  axes,  entered  with  drawn  swords,  and  having  cast  a  glance 


62       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY 

upon  the  crowd,  proceeded  to  seize  them  separately  as  slaves, 
without  encountering  any  resistance.  Who  can  describe  such 
ruin  and  calamity  ?  The  Turk,  with  sacrilegious  hand,  seizes  on 
every  nun  of  delicate  form  or  beautiful  person ;  one  carries  off 
his  victim  bound ;  another,  more  powerful,  snatches  her  away 
from  him.  The  curling  hair,  the  naked  breast,  the  extended 
arms  offer  fresh  inducements  to  the  plunderers.  The  mistress 
was  bound  with  her  servant;  the  master  with  his  purchased 
slave ;  the  priest  with  the  porter  at  the  gate.  Young  men  were 
linked  in  the  same  chain  with  virgins  on  whom  the  sun  had  never 
shone,  —  whose  faces  their  own  fathers  had  scarcely  beheld ;  and 
stripes  were  inflicted  on  their  tender  flesh  if  they  dared  to  offer 
any  resistance.  The  space  of  an  hour  was  sufficient  for  these 
robbers,  these  ministers  of  Divine  vengeance,  to  bind  the 
whole  multitude,  —  the  men  with  ropes,  the  women  with  their 
own  fillets  and  shawls." 

At  two  o'clock  on  the  same  day  victorious  Mohammed 
entered  the  city  by  the  Gate  of  St.  Romanus,  through 
which  an  ancient  prophesy  had  predicted  the  free  passage 
of  a  destroyer.  He  paused  at  St.  Sophia,  and  ordered  the 
destruction  of  all  Christian  emblems,  that  it  might  be  con- 
verted into  a  mosque,  and  then  rode  on  to  the  great 
Blachernal  Palace.  As  he  entered  its  courts  he  was  heard 
repeating  to  himself  some  lines  of  Persian  poetry,  — 

"  The  spider  has  spun  her  web  in  the  palace  of  the  Caesars, 
The  owl  has  sung  her  watch-song  on  the  towers  of  Afrasiab." 

But  Mohammed,  though  a  man  of  generous  impulses  and 
literary  tastes,  was  still  a  savage.  He  did  not,  indeed,  at 
first  trample  on  or  oppress  his  Christian  subjects  on  account 
of  their  religion ;  on  the  contrary,  the  heads  of  the  Greek 
Church  were  treated  with  respect ;  and  the  churches  and 
chapels  of  Constantinople  were  divided  between  them  and 
the  Moslems.  He  caused  the  dead  body  of  the  emperor 
to  be  sought,  and  gave  it  honorable  burial.  But  cruelties 
unspeakable,  committed  in  cold  blood  two  weeks  after  the 
capture  and  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  filled  Christendom 
with  horror,  though  no  combined  movement  was  attempted 
against  the  Turks  for  several  years. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

TURKS,    RUSSIANS,    AND    GREEKS. 

OUPINE  though  civilized  Christendom  might  have  been 
*^  on  hearing  the  fate  of  the  capital  of  the  Greek 
Empire,  and  the  story  of  the  sufferings  of  Greek  Christians, 
there  was  one  barbarous  people  in  whose  hearts  the  taking 
of  Constantinople  roused  deep  and  permanent  emotion. 
"There  remains  now,"  said  a  contemporary  Russian  an- 
nalist, "  but  one  Orthodox  Empire.  The  prophecies  are 
accomplished  which  long  ago  announced  that  the  sons  of 
Ishmael  should  conquer  Byzantium.  Perhaps  we  are  destined 
also  to  see  the  fulfilment  of  that  prophecy  which  promises 
that  the  Russians  shall  triumph  over  the  children  of  Ish- 
mael, and  reign  over  the  seven  hills  of  Constantinople." 

After  the  events  we  have  recorded  Mohammed  the  Great 
reigned  nearly  thirty  years.  He  rooted  out  from  the  Morea 
the  last  princes  of  the  house  of  Palaeologos,  and  forced 
one  of  them  to  give  him  his  daughter  in  marriage.  He 
conquered  Greece,  Servia,  the  Islands  of  the  .^Egean  Sea, 
and  the  tiny  Greek  Empire  of  Trebizond,  where  the  last 
of  the  Comneni  still  reigned.  The  princes  of  that  house 
were  murdered  by  the  Turks,  and  their  mother,  the  Em- 
press Irene,  after  digging  for  them  a  grave  with  her  own 
hands,  fell  dead  by  the  side  of  her  beloved  ones,  and  the 
earth  was  filled  in  over  them.  Mohammed  rent  Nigropont 
from  the  Venetians,  and  other  important  places  from  the 
Genoese.  Frequent  wars  with  Persia,  however,  prevented 
more  vigorous  operations  against  Christian  princes.  The 
most  memorable  enterprise  he  undertook  during  his  latter 


64       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XlXrtf  CENTURY. 

years  was  against  the  Island  of  Rhodes.  That  island  had 
been  conquered  from  the  Saracens  by  the  Knights  Hospit- 
allers about  fifteen  years  after  their  expulsion  from  Pales- 
tine, in  1291.  Its  ports  were  at  that  time  nests  for  pirates, 
but  the  Knights  suppressed  the  pirates,  occupied  the  island, 
and  built  fortifications  of  enormous  strength.  Rhodes  was 
fertile,  beautiful,  and  picturesque  beyond  description.  The 
fleets  of  the  Knights  kept  in  check  the  Mohammedan 
corsairs,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  became  prosper- 
ous and  happy.  Against  it,  however,  in  1480,  Mohammed 
sent  a  force  of  seventy  thousand  men,  in  one  hundred 
and  sixty  vessels  commanded  by  four  Greek  renegades. 
One  of  these  was  an  engineer  of  reputation,  another,  who 
commanded  the  expedition,  was  a  Palaeologos.  The  im- 
mense guns  of  the  Turks  soon  made  a  breach  in  the  great 
tower.  In  spite  of  the  efforts,  of  the  Knights  it  grew  wider 
and  wider,  till  the  Grand  Master,  Pierre  d'Aubusson,  per- 
ceived that  nothing  more  was  possible,  except  to  resist  an 
assault.  This  was  not  long  delayed.  The  Turkish  ships 
bore  down  upon  the  Tower  of  St.  Nicholas,  which  was  close 
to  the  water's  edge.  All  day  the  sixteen  thousand  followers 
of  the  Knights  defended  the  position  against  five  times 
their  number.  Thousands  of  Turks  were  cut  down,  but 
thousands  more  seemed  to  replace  the  slain  and  wounded. 
When  at  last  the  day  closed  D'Aubusson  sent  fire-ships  into 
the  fleet  of  the  enemy.  Several  galleys  caught  fire,  and  the 
Turkish  fleet  was  dispersed. 

Again  Palseologos  attacked  the  place  in  a  new  quarter. 
Men,  women,  children,  nuns,  and  Jews  (a  part  of  the  popu- 
lation much  devoted  to  the  Knights)  joined  in  the  work 
of  strengthening  the  defences.  Again  and  again  Palaeologos 
attacked,  but  was  every  time  repulsed,  until  at  last,  with  a 
loss  of  more  than  half  his  men,  he  drew  off  his  fleet,  and 
left  the  island.  The  sultan  sentenced  him  to  death  for 
the  failure  of  his  enterprise,  but  his  punishment  was  com- 
muted to  exile.  Mohammed  himself  died  shortly  after. 
He  directed  that  on  his  tomb  should  be  engraved  :  "  I 


TURK'S,   RUSSIANS,   AND   GREEKS.  65 

intended  to  capture  Rhodes,  and  subjugate  Italy."  As  a 
first  step  toward  the  latter  purpose  his  troops  had  already 
attacked  and  taken  Otranto,  and  the  kingdoms  of  the  West 
were  filled  with  fear. 

Mohammed's  empire  was  disputed  by  his  two  sons, 
Bajazet  and  Zizim.  Achmet  Pasha,  the  victorious  com- 
mander who  had  just  returned  from  planting  the  crescent 
on  the  towers  of  Otranto,  declared  for  Bajazet.  Zizim 
sought  refuge  in  Rhodes.  He  was  far  from  handsome, 
though  a  prince  of  great  accomplishments,  and  of  a  noble 
soul.  The  Grand  Master  d'Aubusson,  who  lived  twenty- 
three  years  after  his  glorious  defence  of  Rhodes,  unhappily 
stained  his  memory  on  this  occasion  with  treachery.  He 
sent  Zizim  to  a  Commandery  of  his  Order  in  France,  in  a 
sort  of  honorable  captivity.  The  Order  accepted  a  bribe 
from  Bajazet  to  keep  him  safely.  Pope  Innocent  VIII., 
however,  insisted  that  the  Mohammedan  prince  should  be 
given  up  to  him,  in  order  that  he  might  lead  against  the 
Turks  a  Christian  army,  which  was  being  raised  in  Hun- 
gary. Zizim  was  therefore  sent  to  Rome,  and  was  there 
treated  with  distinction,  but  Innocent,  who  died  soon  after, 
was  succeeded  by  Cardinal  Borgia,  Alexander  VI.,  of  in- 
famous memory,  who,  being  bribed  by  Bajazet,  with  three 
hundred  thousand  ducats,  first  imprisoned,  and  then  pois- 
oned the  Turkish  prince  on  the  eve  of  his  surrender  to 
Charles  VIII. ,  who  was  on  his  march  to  Naples. 

Bajazet  II.  reigned  twenty-one  years.  He  was  poisoned 
by  his  son  Selim,  who  reigned  eight  years,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded in  1519  by  his  only  son,  Solyman  the  magnificent, 
the  most  illustrious  sultan  of  an  illustrious  house.  This 
prince  was  proclaimed  sultan  three  days  before  Charles  V. 
was  crowned  emperor  of  Germany. 

Bajazet  and  Selim  had  not  pushed  their  conquests  in 
Europe ;  they  were  chiefly  occupied  by  the  affairs  of  Egypt, 
Syria,  and  Palestine ;  but  Solyman  began  his  reign  by  a 
successful  expedition  against  Rhodes.  He  commanded  it 
in  person,  at  the  head  of  two  hundred  thousand  men.  He 

S 


66       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

also  invaded  Hungary,  laid  Moldavia  under  tribute,  and 
subdued  all  the  kingdom  of  the  Saracens  in  Western  Asia. 
He  then  led  another  expedition  through  Hungary  into 
Austria,  but  was  checked  in  1529  before  the  walls  of  Vienna. 
Subsequently  Hungary  made  an  alliance  with  him,  out  of 
hatred  for  Austria,  and  his  great  corsair  Barbarossa  spread 
terror  and  devastation  along  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  The  alliance  of  Solyman  .was  courted  by  the  Most 
Christian  king  Francis  I.,  and  even  the  pope  was  accused 
of  being  favorable  to  him  out  of  enmity  to  the  Greek 
Christians.  His  empire  extended  from  the  Danube  to  the 
Euphrates,  —  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  shores  of  the  Black 
Sea.  In  1565  his  general  Mustapha  with  thirty  thousand 
men  (among  them  six  thousand  Janissaries)  attacked  the 
Knights  Hospitallers,  who  after  being  driven  out  of  Rhodes, 
had  found  an  asylum  in  Malta.1 

Solyman  before  he  died  united  the  sacerdotal  character 
of  caliph  with  that  of  sultan,  and  became  the  Prince  of 
True  Believers.  As  such  he  was  addressed  by  Queen 
Elizabeth,  who  was  advised  to  style  herself  to  him  Defender 
of  the  Faith  against  Christian  idolaters.  His  subjects 
called  him  the  Lawgiver,  for  he  completed  the  code  of  laws 
begun  by  his  great-grandfather,  —  all  of  which  are  based 
upon  precepts  in  the  Koran. 

Solyman  was  less  of  a  voluptuary  and  better  educated 
than  his  predecessors.  In  glory  he  excelled  them  all ;  but 
he  was  the  last  of  the  great  Ottoman  sultans.  From  his 
time  the  family  of  Othman  has  degenerated,  and  the 
power  of  the  Porte  has  declined.  Two  causes  have  con- 
tributed to  this  decay.  Many  changes  were  permitted 
in  the  organization  and  discipline  of  the  Janissaries ;  and 
the  sultan  caused  his  promising  young  son  Mustapha  to 
be  murdered  almost  in  his  presence,  that  the  son  of  his 
favorite  (a  Russian  slave)  might  succeed  him  on  the 
throne.  Instead  of  receiving  the  hardy,  liberal  education 

1  The  glorious  particulars  of  that  most  interesting  siege  have 
been  stirringly  told  by  Mr.  Prescott  in  his  life  of  Philip  II. 


TURKS,  RUSSIANS,  AND   GREEKS.  6? 

hitherto  given  to  princes  of  his  race,  this  young  man  was 
brought  up,  as  all  his  successors  have  been  since,  in  the 
voluptuousness  and  effeminacy  of  the  seraglio. 

From  Solyman's  death  in  1566,  to  the  present  day, 
there  have  been  twenty-two  sultans,  but  none  of  them,  save 
Sultan  Mahmoud,  the  destroyer  of  the  Janissaries,  have 
shown  marked  talent  or  great  vigor. 

All  through  the  seventeenth  century  the  Turks  struggled 
with  Austria,  often  in  the  character  of  the  allies  and  pro- 
tectors of  Hungary;  and  in  1683  Vienna  had  all  but  met 
the  fate  of  Constantinople.  In  1699  the  treaty  of  Carlo- 
witz  deprived  Turkey  of  the  Ukraine  and  Podalia,  gave  the 
Morea  to  the  Venetians,  and  the  strong  post  of  Azof  to  the 
Russians. 

Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  who  passed  over  the 
lands  rendered  desolate  by  these  cruel  wars  in  1717,  thus 
speaks  of  what  she  witnessed  :  — 

"The  desert  woods  of  Servia  are  the  common  refuge  of 
thieves,  who  rob,  fifty  in  a  company,  and  the  villages  are  so  poor 
that  only  force  could  extort  from  them  the  necessary  provisions. 
Indeed  the  Janissaries  had  no  mercy  on  their  poverty,  killing 
all  the  poultry  and  sheep  they  could  find,  without  asking  to 
whom  they  belonged,  while  the  wretched  owners  dared  not  put 
in  their  claims  for  fear  of  being  beaten." 

In  that  year  (1717)  the  Sultan  Achmet  again  went  to 
war  with  Austria.  The  aged  hero  Prince  Eugene  compelled 
him  to  give  up  nearly  all  Servia  and  Moldavia,  but  the 
latter  was  recovered  by  the  Turks  after  it  had  been  gov- 
erned by  Austria  for  nineteen  years.  Twenty  years  later 
the  Turks  regained  Servia  and  Wallachia,  but  they  gave  up 
the  Crimea  to  Russia. 

Such  incessant  changes  make  it  impossible  in  a  short 
history  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  provinces  and  princi- 
palities which  once  formed  part  of  European  Turkey ;  and 
it  seems  to  have  been  equally  difficult  for  those  distracted 
countries  to  consolidate  since  their  emancipation. 

Hostilities  hardly  at  any  time  ceased  between  Turkey 


68       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

and  Russia  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries, and  the  memory  of  this  strife  is  so  vivid  in  the  minds 
of  the  Russian  peasantry,  that,  it  is  said,  they  still  call  all 
enemies  "mussulmans"  in  their  village  patois. 

After  the  reign  of  Solyman,  the  Ottoman  Empire  seems 
to  lose  itself  in  a  number  of  large,  disorderly,  ill-organized 
provinces,  in  which  Christians  in  Europe  were  more  numer- 
ous than  the  Mohammedans.  But  they  agreed  only  in  their 
hatred  of  the  Turks ;  they  differed  widely  on  points  of  ortho- 
doxy, in  race,  laws,  interests,  language,  and  aspirations. 
•  All  the  provinces  were  fertile,  all  were  almost  without 
roads,  all  felt  themselves  oppressed  by  local  tyrants,  above 
all  by  the  tax-collector.  All  were  densely  ignorant,  but  all 
were  accustomed  to  some  sort  of  local  self-government,  on 
the  village  system.  Most  of  them  made  bitter  complaints 
of  the  subserviency  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  Greek  Church 
to  the  Mussulman  authorities  at  Constantinople ;  no  man 
seemed  to  expect  justice  from  a  Turk  without  bribery,  not 
so  much  because  he  was  a  Christian,  as  because  Greek 
Christians  were  a  subject  race.  As  some  one  suggested  in 
1873,  "Take  all  the  evils  that  afflicted  France  before  the 
Revolution,  add  those  that  distracted  England  under  the 
Norman  kings,  aggravate  them  by  the  bickerings  and  jeal- 
ousies of  Jews,  Mohammedans,  Roman  Catholics,  Rene- 
gades, and  Greek  Christians,  —  then  leaven  this  mass  with 
a  vague  hope  of  coming  deliverance,  such  as  will  enable 
every  man  among  them  to  set  his  foot  upon  the  neck  of 
his  oppressor,  and  you  may  form  some  idea  of  the  condi- 
tion of  things." 

Sultan  Mahmoud  II.  —  styled  "  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty  upon  earth  "  —  was  the  second  son  of  Sultan  Abdul 
Hamid,  who  died  in  1789  when  Mahmoud  was  only  four 
years  old.  Abdul  Hamid,  according  to  the  law  of  succes- 
sion in  Turkey,  was  succeeded,  not  by  one  of  his  sons,  but 
by  his  brother  Selim  III.  On  Selim's  death,  in  1807, 
Mustapha,  the  eldest  son  of  Abdul  Hamid,  was  called  to 
the  throne.  It  was  his  purpose  to  adhere  to  Turkish  prece- 


TURKS,   RUSSIANS,   AND   GREEK'S.  6$ 

dent  and  put  his  younger  brothers  to  death,  in  order  to 
forestall  conspiracies  in  their  favor,  in  order  also  that  his 
own  sons  might,  after  his  death,  replace  him  on  the  throne. 
Mustapha  was  therefore  preparing  to  get  rid  of  Mahmoud 
in  the  obscurity  of  the  seraglio,  when  a  military  emeute  sud- 
denly deposed  him,  and  girded  Mahmoud  with  the  sword 
of  Osman,  a  ceremony  equivalent  to  Western  coronation. 
Needless  to  say  that  Mustapha  was  murdered,  and  that  his 
infant  children  were  destroyed. 

The  early  years  of  Mahmoud's  reign  were  occupied  by 
incessant  disputes  with  the  all-powerful  Janissaries.  We 
have  seen  how  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  spoke  of 
them  half  a  century  before,  and  since  her  time  they  had 
only  increased  in  arrogance  and  insubordination.  Alter- 
nately they  coerced  their  sovereign  into  granting  their 
demands,  even  to  the  banishment  and  execution  of  his  per- 
sonal attendants  and  favorites,  or  they  were  in  open  revolt 
against  him.  When  very  much  exasperated  they  were  in 
the  habit  of  setting  fire  to  the  outskirts  of  Constantinople. 
The  streets  of  that  city  frequently  ran  blood.  But  during 
the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  western  Europe 
had  no  time  to  turn  its  eyes  upon  the  East,  being  absorbed 
by  the  conquests  and  successes  of  the  mighty  emperor  of 
the  Western  world. 

The  year  that  Napoleon  invaded  Russia,  that  power  con- 
cluded a  long  war  with  Turkey,  by  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest ; 
but  it  is  Turkish  policy  to  make  promises  on  paper,  and 
never  to  fulfil  them.  There  were  too  policies  in  the  Divan 
at  that  period :  that  of  Russia  and  of  England,  who  on  the 
Turkish  question  were  then  united;  and  that  of  France, 
which  was  ably  sustained  by  Marshal  Sebastiani,  then  the 
French  ambassador.  But  Mahmoud  was  restive  under 
foreign  dictation.  His  reign  continued  to  be  a  succession 
of  treasons  and  rebellions,  suppressed  (when  not  submitted 
to)  by  revolting  cruelty.  The  Servians  rose  against  him. 
Mehemet  Ali,  a  Macedonian  soldier  of  fortune,  who  had 
been  made  governor  of  Egypt,  converted  himself  almost 


70       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

into  an  independent  sovereign.  Roumelia,  Widdin,  Damas- 
cus, Trebizond,  St.  Jean  d'  Acre,  Aleppo,  and  other  places 
were  scenes  of  revolt  and  of  frightful  massacre.  Ali,  the 
bold,  crafty,  energetic  pasha  of  Jannina  (the  potentate 
visited  in  his  fastnesses  by  Lord  Byron)  made  himself  mas- 
ter of  Epirus,  and  the  war  which  thereupon  ensued  with 
the  Albanians  might  be  called  a  prologue  to  the  Revolution 
in  Greece.  As  soon  as  Sultan  Mahmoud  was  convinced 
that  in  his  conflict  with  Ali  the  sympathy  of  his  Greek 
subjects  went  with  his  opponents,  he  issued  the  following 
order  to  his  generals  :  "  Every  Christian  capable  of  bearing 
arms  must  die.  The  boys  shall  be  circumcised  and  edu- 
cated in  the  military  discipline  of  Europe  to  form  a  supple- 
mentary corps  of  Janissaries." 

The  Society  of  the  Hetairae  or  the  Brotherhood  of  the 
friends  of  Greece  had  been  joined  by  men  of  influence, 
wealth,  and  education  in  all  countries,  and  by  1821  it 
numbered  eighty  thousand  members.  Prince  Alexander 
Ypsilanti,  the  fast  friend  and  aide-de-camp  of  the  Emperor 
Alexander,  made  not  the  smallest  doubt  that  his  master, 
then  under  the  religious  influence  of  Madame  de  Kriidener, 
would  second  any  movement  in  favor  of  Greek  Christians 
and  assist  it  if  necessary  with  material  aid.  But  the  con- 
science of  Alexander  was  torn  by  what  seemed  to  him  con- 
flicting obligations.  To  abandon  the*  cause  of  the  Greek 
Christians  was  hard,  especially  as  to  support  it  might  prob- 
ably give  him  that  paramount  influence  which  every  Russian 
covets  in  the  city  of  Constantinople.  On  the  other  hand 
he  had  sworn  solemnly  and  with  great  earnestness  to  be 
faithful  to  the  Holy  Alliance,  which,  as  he  understood  it  at 
the  time  he  took  his  oath,  was  an  alliance  between  Austria, 
Prussia,  France,  and  Russia  to  put  down  every  attempt  at 
revolution  in  any  country  in  Europe,  —  revolution  being 
synonymous  with  atheism  in  Alexander's  mind. 

At  the  moment  when  Ypsilanti  was  lifting  the  standard  of 
revolt  at  Jassy  in  Moldavia,  and  was  assuring  his  followers 
of  the  countenance  and  protection  of  the  Russian  emperor, 


TURKS,   RUSSIANS,  AND   GREEKS.  Ji 

—  when  all  Greek  Christians  throughout  Turkey  were  pre- 
paring to  unite  in  the  revolt,  —  a  military  insurrection  took 
place  in  Italy,  and  Spain  was  convulsed  by  a  constitutional 
revolution.  Those  uprisings  were  considered  so  formidable 
to  the  peace  of  Europe  that  the  Holy  Alliance  called  on 
France  to  invade  Spain,  and  force  the  constitutionalists  into 
submission  to  King  Ferdinand,  the  despicable  despot  whom 
the  Congress  of  Vienna  had  set  over  them.  Could  Alex- 
ander, thus  engaged  in  putting  down  one  revolutionary 
movement  place  himself  at  the  head  of  another,  —  even 
though  the  Revolution  in  Greece  was  the  cause  of  his 
co-religionists  against  Mohammedan  oppressors? 

He  decided  that  his  honor  called  him  to  stand  faithfully 
by  the  word  which  he  had  pledged  to  the  Holy  Alliance. 
He  cast  off  Madame  de  Kriidener,  he  disowned  all  connec- 
tion with  the  Hetairists  and  Ypsilanti ;  but  from  that  time 
forward  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  suffered  from  fits  of 
great  excitement  alternating  with  periods  of  religious 
melancholy.  He  may  be  said  to  have  died  a  victim  to 
his  sense  of  honor  conflicting  with  his  interests  and  his 
sympathies. 

Ypsilanti,  disavowed  by  his  former  friend  and  emperor, 
continued  his  struggle  against  the  Turks  in  Wallachia  and 
Moldavia.  Those  pashaliks  were  then  called  the  Danubian 
Provinces ;  they  are  now  the  Kingdom  of  Roumania.  As 
seen  on  the  map  their  form  is  much  like  that  of  a  baby's 
sock,  Moldavia  being  the  ankle,  Wallachia  the  foot,  the  sole 
of  which  extends  along  the  northern  or  left  bank  of  the 
Danube.  The  country  is  wedged  in  between  Hungary  and 
Russia.  For  the  latter  its  inhabitants  have  no  great  affec- 
tion, partly  on  account  of  religious  differences ;  for  they  are 
chiefly  of  the  Greek  Church  owing  allegiance  to  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  whereas  the  czar  is  head  of  the 
Church  to  all  orthodox  Christians  in  his  dominions. 

The  refusal  of  Alexander  to  countenance  his  aide-de-camp 
was  a  death-blow  to  the  rising  in  the  Danubian  Provinces ; 
but  the  spirit  of  the  Greeks  was  already  stirred.  Besides, 


72        RUSSIA  AND   TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

they  did  not  believe  that  Russia  would  really  desert  them 
in  their  extremity. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  Ypsilanti's  rising  reached  Con- 
stantinople Sultan  Mahmoud  and  his  Divan  resolved  upon 
a  blow  that  should  strike  terror  to  the  hearts  of  all  Greek 
Christians. 

On  Easter  Sunday,  the  great  Festival  in  the  Greek 
Church,  as  the  Patriarch  Gregorius,  then  eighty  years  old, 
was  descending  the  steps  of  the  altar,  he  was  seized  and 
hanged  over  the  gate  of  his  Archiepiscopal  Palace  amid 
the  furious  cries  of  a  vast  crowd  of  Mussulmans.  After  the 
body  had  hung  three  hours  it  was  cut  down  and  delivered 
over  to  an  infuriated  band  of  Jews,  who  dragged  it  by  the 
long  beard  about  the  streets,  and  finally  flung  it  into  the 
harbor.  Thence  Christians,  by  night,  recovered  it,  and 
transported  it  to  Odessa,  where  it  was  at  length  solemnly 
interred. 

Everywhere,  after  the  death  of  the  patriarch,  priests  and 
leading  Greeks  shared  the  same  fate,  and  the  Christian 
churches  were  openly  profaned.  "  Not  a  day  passed,"  says 
Alison,  "  that  numbers  of  the  Greek  citizens  in  Constanti- 
nople and  Adrianople  were  not  murdered,  their  property 
plundered,  and  their  wives  and  daughters  sold  as  slaves. 
In  ten  days  several  thousand  innocent  persons  were  in 
this  manner  massacred." 

On  the  1 5th  of  June,  1821,  five  archbishops,  three  bishops 
and  a  great  number  of  laymen,  were  hanged  in  the  streets 
of  Constantinople  without  any  trial,  and  four  hundred  and 
fifty  Greek  mechanics  were  transported  as  slaves  to  the 
Assyrian  frontier.  At  Salonika  (the  Thessalonica  of  Saint 
Paul)  the  battlements  of  the  city  were  hung  round  with  a 
ghastly  dangling  fringe  of  Christian  heads,  whose  blood  ran 
down  the  wall  and  reddened  the  water  in  the  ditch.  Nor 
was  all  this  over  in  a  day,  nor  in  a  month,  nor  in  a  year. 
It  was  going  on  continually  in  all  parts  of  the  Turkish 
Empire  from  1821  to  1829. 

The  Greeks  of  the  Peleponnesus  and  of  the  Islands  of 


TURKS,   RUSSIANS,  AND   GREEKS.  73 

the  Archipelago,  fought  with  desperate  courage.  The  suc- 
cesses of  their  little  fleet  were  due  chiefly  to  fire-ships, 
which  they  managed  with  great  daring  and  dexterity. 
But  bravely  as  they  fought  they  had  no  ideas  of  the  vir- 
tues and  the  duties  of  citizens.  At  the  height  of  their 
war  against  the  Turks  their  leaders  turned  their  arms 
against  each  other.  "  They  are  the  same  rascals  that  they 
were  in  the  days  of  Themistocles,"  said  one  diplomatist 
to  another. 

Saddest  among  the  stories  that  stirred  all  hearts  in  Eng- 
land and  America  in  those  days,  was  that  of  the  great 
massacre  in  the  Island  of  Scio.  But  the  massacre  at  Scio 
was  no  worse  than  other  massacres  in  Cyprus,  Crete, 
Smyrna,  and  numbers  of  other  places.  To  Boston  in 
1826  was  brought  Garafelia,  a  little  Greek  girl  who  was 
drawn  with  her  mother  from  their  hiding-place  in  an  oven, 
and  sold  as  a  slave.  She  was  redeemed  by  an  American 
philanthropist  and  brought  to  America,  where  the  very 
name  of  Garafelia  became  popular. 

Twenty-five  thousand  people,  it  was  said,  met  death  in 
one  day  in  the  massacre  of  Scio,  and  thirty  thousand 
women  and  children  were  sold  as  slaves.  Besides  which, 
the  principal  Greek  merchants  who  traded  with  the  island 
and  were  living  at  Constantinople  were  decapitated  by 
order  of  the  sultan. 

Here  is  a  description  of  the  Scio  massacre,  drawn  from 
an  account  written  not  long  after  it  took  place,  by  Miss 
Sedgwick :  — 

"  For  a  long  time,  after  the  war  between  Turkey  and  Greece 
broke  out,  Scio  took  no  part  in  the  contest.  The  Turkish 
dominion  was  less  felt  there  than  in  the  rest  of  Greece.  The 
island  lies  almost  under  the  shadow  of  the  Asiatic  coast.  It 
has  a  rich  soil,  and  in  its  happy  days  it  was  so  highly  cultivated, 
so  loaded  with  fruit  and  so  beautiful  with  flowers,  that  it  was 
described  as '  an  island  of  gardens.'  It  had  schools  and  colleges 
well  endowed,  and  its  upper  classes,  both  of  men  and  women, 
were  as  well  educated  and  accomplished  as  other  members  of 
European  good  society.  The  Sciots  had  wealth,  for  they 


74       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

carried  on  an  extensive  commerce.  They  had  resident  mer 
chants  in  all  the  great  commercial  towns  of  Europe.  They 
carried  on  nearly  all  the  trade  between  Greece  and  the  Turkish 
cities  of  Smyrna  and  Constantinople.  They  had  more  to 
hazard  in  a  war  than  their  fellow-countrymen. 

"They  were  allowed  some  privileges  of  local  government, 
and  their  affairs  were  managed  mildly  and  prudently  by  a  coun- 
cil of  elders.  In  May,  1821,  however,  when  the  standard  of 
the  Hetairiae  was  raised  at  Jassy,  a  small  squadron  of  Ipsariots 
(patriotic  Greeks)  appeared  off  their  coast.  The  Turkish  Aga 
(or  colonel),  the  military  governor,  immediately  resorted  to 
measures  that  had  been  taken  in  other  Greek  islands;  he 
seized  about  forty  elders  and  bishops  and  shut  them  up  in 
the  castle,  as  hostages  for  the  general  good  conduct  of  the 
people.  He  brought  also  to  his  aid  troops  from  Asia  Minor, 
and  did  not  discountenance  their  depredations  on  the  wealthier 
inhabitants.  The  people  were  stung  to  madness  by  the  excesses 
of  these  troops,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  rouse  them  to 
resistance ;  but  it  was  hard  to  light  the  fire  that  was  to  sweep 
over  their  own  homes  and  gardens.  They  were  still  hesitating 
when  two  insurrectionists  from  Samos,  with  a  small  band  of 
followers,  landed  on  their  shores.  The  elders  in  vain  urged  the 
peasantry  not  to  join  them.  The  Aga  doubled  the  number  of 
his  hostages.  He  expected  further  aid  from  Asia  Minor;  the 
Sciots  looked  for  the  help  of  the  Greek  fleet. 

"  Their  hope  was  vain.  On  April  22,  1822,  a  Turkish  fleet  of 
fifty  sail  moored  in  the  bay  and  began  to  bombard  the  chief 
town.  The  Sciots  were  deserted  by  the  Samians,  who  had 
prompted  them  to  rebellion. 

"  Scio  became  the  scene  of  indescribable  horrors.  The  male 
inhabitants  were  massacred ;  their  houses  were  plundered  and 
burned,  —  not  one  was  left  standing,  except  such  as  belonged  to 
foreign  consuls. 

"  Three  days  were  passed  in  sacking  the  city ;  then  the  Turks 
spread  themselves  all  over  the  island.  The  following  letter  is 
from  the  pen  of  an  eyewitness  who  escaped.  He  says  :  '  Oh, 
God !  what  a  spectacle  did  Scio  present  upon  this  memorable 
occasion  !  On  whatever  side  I  cast  my  eyes  nothing  but  pil- 
lage, murder,  and  conflagation  appeared.  While  some  were 
occupied  in  plundering  the  villas  of  the  rich  merchants,  and 
others  in  setting  fire  to  the  villages,  the  air  was  rent  with  the 
mingled  groans  of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  were  falling 
under  the  swords  and  daggers  of  the  infidels.  The  only  excep- 


TURKS,  RUSSIANS,  AND   GREEKS.  75 

tion  during  the  massacre  was  of  young  women  and  boys,  who 
were  preserved  to  be  afterwards  sold  as  slaves.  Many  of  these 
young  women,  whose  husbands  had  been  butchered,  were  run- 
ning to  and  fro,  frantic,  with  torn  garments,  dishevelled  hair, 
pressing  their  trembling  infants  to  their  breasts,  and  seeking 
death  as  a  relief  from  the  fate  that  awaited  them.'  Ten  days 
were  given  to  slaughter.  Gardeners  and  work-people,  who  had 
been  seized  and  carried  on  board  Turkish  ships,  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  they  would  reveal  the  hiding-place  of  hidden  treasure, 
were,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,  hung.  This  was  the  signal 
for  the  execution  of  the  hostages  in  the  citadel.  The  prisoners 
were  for  the  most  part  sold  in  Smyrna  or  Constantinople;  but 
on  June  19  an  order  came  to  the  slave-market  of  Constantinople 
for  the  cessation  of  the  sale.  The  Island  of  Scio  had  been 
granted  many  years  before  as  an  appanage  to  one  of  the  sul- 
tanas. From  it  she  derived  a  fixed  revenue,  and  a  title  to  inter- 
fere in  all  matters  relating  to  police  or  to  internal  administration. 
This  patroness,  at  the  time  of  the  massacre,  was  Asma,  sister 
of  the  sultan,  who  received  about  two  hundred  thousand  piastres 
a  year  besides  casual  presents  from  her  flourishing  little  prov- 
ince. When  she  was  informed  of  its  destruction,  her  indigna- 
tion was  excessive.  Her  anger  was  chiefly  directed  against  the 
officers  in  command,  —  Valid  Pasha,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
citadel,  and  the  Capitan  Pasha,  or  chief  admiral,  to  whose  con- 
duct she  chiefly  attributed  her  misfortune.  In  vain  the  Capitan 
Pasha  selected  from  his  captives  sixty  young  and  beautiful 
maidens,  whom  he  presented  for  the  service  of  her  Highness. 
She  rejected  the  offering  with  disdain,  and  continued  her  remon- 
strances against  the  injustice  and  illegality  of  reducing  free  sons 
and  daughters  of  the  soil  to  slavery,  and  exposing  them  for  sale 
in  the  slave-markets.  The  sultan,  at  length,  yielded  to  her  im- 
portunities. The  permission  for  such  brutalities  was  revoked ; 
and  it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  this  unlooked-for  humanity  was 
due  to  the  exertions  of  a  woman  !  " 

This  account  of  Scio  by  Miss  Sedgwick  precedes  the  history 
of  a  young  girl  named  Maritza,  who,  with  her  boy- brother  and 
her  mother,  was  dragged  from  a  hiding-place  by  the  soldiers. 
The  mother  was  a  lady  of  high  rank  in  the  island.  They 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  slave-merchant,  who  sent  them 
to  Alexandria.  Here  the  boy,  who  had  provoked  his 
master  by  obstinately  refusing  to  renounce  his  Christian 


76       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

faith,  was  murdered  in  cold  blood  before  his  mother's  eyes. 
Mother  and  daughter  were  then  offered  at  an  enormous 
price  to  the  sister  of  Ibrahim  Pasha.  As  they  waited  in  the 
anteroom  of  that  great  lady,  they  were  seen  and  com- 
miserated by  two  young  travelling  Englishmen.  Finding 
that  the  princess  would  not  pay  the  slave-merchant  his 
price,  these  gentlemen  clubbed  together  their  resources, 
and  bought  the  women.  What  became  of  the  mother  I 
do  not  know;  but  one  of  the  gentlemen,  having  become 
the  sole  possessor  of  Maritza,  sent  her  to  his  mother  in 
England  to  receive  an  education.  He  married  her  when 
she  was  seventeen  years  old.  She  was  very  accomplished, 
exquisitely  beautiful,  and  made  a  sensation  in  London 
society.  Her  husband,  however,  took  her  back  to 
Alexandria,  where  she  died  a  year  and  a  half  after  of  the 
plague. 

I  cannot  tell  here  the  long  story  of  the  struggle  between 
the  Greeks  and  Turks,  which  lasted  for  eight  years,  and 
enlisted  the  warmest  sympathies  of  Christendom.  The 
narrative  is  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again.  It  tells 
of  Turks  defeated  when  sometimes  ten,  sometimes  twenty 
to  one,  of  bravery,  of  love  of  country,  of  desperate  valor, 
and  generally  of  the  success  of  the  Greeks,  which  led  to 
nothing  for  want  of  statesmanship.  The  Greek  partisan 
leaders  seem  to  have  been  little  amenable  to  any  govern- 
ment or  authority.  The  most  brilliant  deeds  were  done  by 
the  Greek  fleet  under  Frank  Hastings  and  Lord  Cochrane, 
—  English  naval  officers  (who  forfeited  their  commissions 
to  join  the  insurgents) ,  —  and  by  Kanaris,  a  Greek  is- 
lander, whose  daring  exploits  with  fire-ships  again  and 
again  discomfited  the  Turkish  fleets.  Marco  Bozzaris,  who 
perished  in  1823  in  an  attack  on  the  camp  of  a  Turkish 
general,  owes  his  immortal  fame  chiefly  to  the  pen  of  an 
American  poet.  In  1823  Lord  Byron  gave  his  fortune  and 
his  life  to  the  cause  of  the  Greeks.  Rousing  himself  from 
the  cui  bono  lethargy  of  his  life  in  Italy,  he  came  forward 
as  a  statesman  and  a  soldier  in  a  cause  which  had  his 


TURKS,   RUSSIANS,   AND   GREEK'S.  ]>j 

fullest  sympathy,  and  he  drew  after  him  the  sympathies  of 
the  civilized  world.  He  was  bitterly  disappointed,  how- 
ever, on  reaching  Missolonghi,  to  find  how  divided  and 
incapable  of  civil  government  were  the  Greeks  themselves. 
If  he  had  lived  it  is  quite  possible  he  might  have  been  made 
king  of  Greece  at  the  close  of  the  revolution;  but  worn 
out  by  worries  and  malarial  fever,  he  died  a  few  months 
after  reaching  the  Morea.  Doctor  Howe,  of  Boston,  who 
reached  Missolonghi  in  April,  1824,  —  the  day  after  Byron's 
death,  —  said  that  the  place  seemed  as  if  covered  by  a  pall. 
The  loss  sustained  by  Greece  in  the  death  of  the  great 
English  poet  was  counterbalanced  by  the  new  prospects  that 
opened  for  her  on  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Alexander. 
Nicholas  was  eager  to  make  himself  her  protector,  and  three 
months  after  his  brother's  death,  he  declared  war  against 
Turkey  on  the  ground  that  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaty  of 
Bucharest  had  never  been  fulfilled.  Mr.  Canning,  the  Eng- 
lish prime  minister,  —  moved  at  once  by  his  own  generous 
feelings,  and  a  sense  that  Russia  must  not  be  left  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  Greek  Christians  alone,  lest  they  should  learn 
to  look  upon  her  as  their  only  friend,  —  persuaded  France 
and  Austria  to  join  England  and  Russia  in  an  agreement 
to  make  Turkey  acknowledge  the  partial  independence  of 
Greece. 

Strange  to  say,  Sultan  Mahmoud  chose  this  time  for  the 
annihilation  of  his  great  corps  of  Janissaries,  on  whom  the 
power  of  his  empire  had  for  centuries  seemed  to  rest. 

As  the  sultans  had  grown  more  effeminate  after  the  mid- 
dle of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Janissaries  grew  more 
insolent  and  more  and  more  powerful.  Several  sultans 
were  murdered  by  them,  or  had  been  set  aside.  Indeed, 
what  the  Praetorian  Guards  became  in  the  later  Roman 
Empire,  the  Janissaries  aspired  to  be  under  the  later 
sultans. 

Sultan  Mahmoud,  from  the  opening  of  his  reign,  had 
aimed  to  be  a  reforming  sultan.  Especially  he  desired  to 
break  up  the  power  of  the  Janissaries  by  abolishing  their 


78       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

old  dress,  arms,  privileges,  and  customs,  and  introducing 
among  them  the  discipline  of  the  armies  of  Western 
Europe.  His  reforms  were  so  unpopular  that  he  was  called 
the  Giaour  Sultan.  His  idea  was  to  Europeanize  his  people, 
beginning  with  his  army.  Mehemet  AH  had  introduced  the 
dress  and  drill  of  Europeans  into  the  Egyptian  army,  under 
the  superintendence  of  French  officers,  and  Sultan  Mahmoud 
considered  the  experiment  a  success. 

The  Janissaries,  being  an  immense  body  of  men,  were 
distributed  all  through  the  Turkish  Empire  ;  for,  after  twenty 
years  of  service,  they  were  allowed  to  marry,  and  engage  in 
various  trades  and  occupations.  They  had  been  highly 
exasperated  by  the  very  meagre  success  of  the  Turkish 
arms  against  the  Greeks ;  and  Mahmoud  expected  opposi- 
tion among  them  to  his  new  plans.  At  first  he  demanded 
only  a  small  contingent  from  each  regiment  to  wear  the 
new  dress,  and  to  adopt  the  new  drill.  They  consented, 
but  finding  their  privileges  further  encroached  upon  (for 
indeed  the  plan  of  the  sultan  and  his  war  minister  Hussein 
Pasha  was  to  drive  them  into  rebellion) ,  they  broke  out  into 
open  revolt  in  Constantinople  June  14,  1826.  The  sultan 
was  fully  prepared  for  this.  He  sent  for  the  Green  Stand- 
ard of  the  Prophet,  which  all  true  Mussulmans  must  follow, 
and  planted  it  in  the  courtyard  of  his  palace.  The  Janis- 
saries were  then  driven  into  their  own  barracks,  which  were 
set  on  fire,  and  every  one  who  attempted  to  escape  was 
shot  down.  Thousands  were  seized  and  executed  through- 
out the  empire.  Those  who  could,  sought  safety  in  exile. 
The  corps  was  abolished,  and  Mahmoud  was  left  with  no 
soldiers  but  ill-disciplined  new  recruits,  awkward  and  half- 
hearted. He  had  destroyed  Turkish  customs,  outraged 
Turkish  feelings,  and  now  by  the  massacre  of  the  Janissaries 
had  sapped  Turkish  strength.  After  this  he  set  at  nought 
in  his  own  person  the  precepts  of  the  Koran.  All  day  he 
worked  with  frenzy,  at  night  he  indulged  himself  in  frightful 
orgies,  till,  dead  drunk,  he  desisted  from  his  madness  and 
slaves  bore  him  to  his  bed.  It  was  in  those  days  that  a 


TURKS,   RUSSIANS,   AND   GREEKS.  79 

Frenchman  of  distinction  dined  with  him,  and  the  sultan 
having  promised  to  grant  him  any  favor  he  might  ask,  the 
guest  had  the  bad  taste  to  request  to  see  the  most  beautiful 
woman  in  the  seraglio.  The  sultan  bowed,  and  gave  an 
order ;  the  feast  went  on,  when  presently  a  slave  entered 
bearing  a  silver  salver  covered  with  a  cloth.  He  was  sent 
round  to  the  French  guest,  who,  lifting  the  veil,  saw  to  his 
horror  the  bleeding  head  of  a  beautiful  woman,  while  the 
sultan  calmly  assured  him  that  living  no  member  of  his 
harem  could  be  seen. 

Sultan  Mahmoud,  finding  that  the  Greeks  were  victorious, 
that  the  Russians  were  invading  Bulgaria,  and  preparing  to 
carry  their  arms  into  Armenia,  while  the  massacre  and  dis- 
persion of  the  Janissaries  had  just  deprived  him  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  fighting  men,  bent  all  his  energies  to  the 
formation  of  a  new  army.  He  collected  European  officers 
to  train  his  Nizam,  the  name  given  to  his  young  recruits, 
who  were  beardless  boys  for  the  most  part ;  for  the  sultan 
and  his  Divan  dreaded  disaffection,  and  preferred  to  recruit 
inexperienced  youths,  who  would  more  readily  adopt  the 
Christian  dress  and  discipline. 

He  also  called  to  his  aid  Ibrahim  Pasha,  the  brave  adopted 
son  of  his  powerful  vassal,  Mehemet  Ali ;  and  he  again 
issued  a  decree  of  total  extermination  against  the  Greeks, 
which  the  ambassadors  of  the  European  Powers  could  not 
prevail  upon  him  to  recall.  He  besides  ordered  all  the 
olive  groves  and  fruit  trees  in  the  Morea  to  be  cut  down. 
The  atrocities  committed  in  southern  Greece  by  the  troops 
of  Ibrahim  Pasha  so  shocked  the  sensibilities  of  Christen- 
dom that  a  combined  English,  French,  and  Russian  fleet, 
under  the  command  of  Admiral  Sir  Edward  Codrington, 
was  sent  into  Greek  waters  to  check,  if  possible,  the  Egyp- 
tian cruelties.  Finding  that  this  could  not  be  done  without 
attacking  the  Turkish  fleet,  Sir  Edward  Codrington  did  so, 
without  any  preliminary  declaration  of  war  between  Eng- 
land and  Turkey,  and  fought  the  brilliant  battle  of  Navarino 
October  20,  1826.  His  government  was  not  entirely  satis- 


80       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

fied  with  this  exploit.  It  did  not  disavow  him,  but  he  was 
never  again  employed,  and  Western  governments  have  since 
come  to  consider  that  the  destruction  of  the  Turkish  fleet 
was  a  great  political  mistake. 

Mahmoud  was  furious  at  this  interference  with  his  policy 
of  vengeance,  and  his  sovereignty.  In  1827  the  Greeks 
formed  a  provisional  government  and  placed  at  its  head 
Capo  d'Istrias,  the  private  secretary  of  the  Russian  em- 
peror. Ibrahim  Pasha,  having  lost  his  fleet,  had  to  suffer 
his  troops  to  be  carried  back  to  Egypt  in  English  vessels. 

Russia,  resolved  on  enforcing  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest  by  the  invasion  of  Turkey,  sent  Diebitsch  with 
twenty  thousand  men  into  Bulgaria,  where  he  laid  siege  to  the 
important  strongholds  of  Silistria,  Brailow,  and  Varna,  which 
guarded  the  high-road  to  Constantinople  ;  while  Paskievitch, 
with  another  army,  made  a  brilliant  campaign  in  Armenia. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  struggle  it  was  supposed  it  would 
be  pitiably  unequal.  Turkey  had  been  weakened  in  every 
way,  and  the  southern  frontier  of  Russia  gleamed  with  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  bayonets  and  sabres.  But  the 
world  did  not  know  then,  as  it  has  known  since  1855  and 
1877,  that  Turkish  troops  behind  stone  walls  are  very  nearly 
invincible.  The  defence  of  Brailow  was  magnificent.  It 
lasted  twenty-seven  days,  and  cost  the  Russians  between 
four  thousand  and  five  thousand  men,  among  them  four 
generals.  The  garrison  capitulated  at  last  on  the  most 
honorable  terms. 

The  successes  of  the  Turks  at  Shumla  were  such  that 
operations  against  that  place  were  reduced  to  a  distant  and 
imperfect  blockade.  But  Varna,  which  is  situated  on  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  was  besieged  both  by  a  Russian 
fleet  and  a  Russian  army.  In  the  first  attack  the  Russians 
lost  three  hundred  men ;  "  and  a  cartful  of  infidel  heads 
was  sent  to  Constantinople ;  for  the  Turks  had  not  yet 
learned,  as  they  did  later,  to  content  themselves  with  the 
salted  ears  of  their  enemies  as  trophies."  1 
1  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  Ivi. 


TURKS,   RUSSIANS,   AND   GREEKS.  8 1 

After  a  siege  of  eighty-seven  days,  in  which  the  Russians 
lost  six  thousand  men,  and  fired  eight  thousand  shells,  and 
while  eight  thousand  of  the  garrison  were  still  under  arms, 
confident  of  success,  and  as  unshaken  in  courage  as  ever,  a 
parley  took  place.  There  were  secret  negotiations  between 
General  Diebitsch  and  Jussef  Pasha  the  Turkish  commander, 
and  the  parley  brought  about  a  surrender. 

A  large  Turkish  force,  however,  was  still  guarding  the 
highway  to  Constantinople,  and  was  little  more  than  four 
hours'  march  from  Varna.  The  Emperor  Nicholas  came 
himself  to  animate  his  troops,  and  to  superintend  their 
military  operations.  In  spite  of  the  czar's  presence  his 
army  met  with  very  little  success.  The  sickly  season  came 
on.  Thousands  of  the  Russians  died,  or  were  in  hospital. 
The  Russians  in  this  campaign  of  1828  fought  two  or  three 
minor  battles,  took  Brailow,  Varna,  and  several  smaller 
forts,  but  they  had  failed  before  Silistria  and  Shumla.  They 
recrossed  the  Danube  at  the  beginning  of  winter.  "  The 
sword,  sickness,  and  hardships  had  cost  them  the  lives  of 
forty  thousand  men.  Considering  their  superiority  in  num- 
bers, armament,  and  organization  the  campaign  had  proved 
a  failure  and  a  humiliation  rather  than  a  triumph." 

In  May  of  the  following  year  Diebitsch  with  a  large 
force  resumed  operations  against  Silistria.  The  siege 
dragged  slowly  on,  until,  two  fresh  armies  of  Russians  coming 
up,  the  Turks  were  forced  to  give  battle  in  the  open. 
Even  then  the  fate  of  war  remained  for  some  time  unde- 
cided ;  but  at  last  a  storm  of  Russian  shot  spread  panic 
among  the  irregular  troops  (who  were  the  strength  of  the 
Turkish  army)  and  dispersed  the  Nizam,  or  youthful  Turks 
recruited  to  supply  the  place  of  the  Janissaries.  The  entire 
army  dissolved,  and  escaped,  as  it  is  said,  "  with  the  dexterity 
of  a  rabble."  This  battle,  called  Kalewtscha,  decided  the 
campaign,  and  Diebitsch,  leaving  the  fortress  of  Silistria 
still  untaken  in  his  rear,  prepared  to  cross  the  Balkans,  and 
to  march  on  Constantinople.  On  Aug.  20  he  was  in  pos- 

6 


82        RUSSIA  AND    TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

session  of  Adrianople,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from 
the  Ottoman  capital. 

Meantime,  though  the  sultan  showed  no  signs  of  fear, 
Constantinople  was  in  a  tumult.  The  populace  threatened 
to  restore  the  Janissaries ;  the  foreign  ambassadors  trembled 
lest  Russia  should  obliterate  Turkey,  and  destroy  the 
balance  of  power  in  Europe.  England  especially  was  im- 
perative for  peace.  With  tears  of  rage  and  shame  Mah- 
moud  signed  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople,  giving  up  Greece, 
paying  heavy  indemnities,  and  perhaps  saving  the  Russian 
army;  for  Diebitsch,  who  had  begun  the  campaign  with 
one  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  men,  had  so  suffered 
by  war,  sickness,  and  other  hardships  that  he  had  but 
twenty-one  thousand  with  him  at  Adrianople. 

But  the  treaty  by  no  means  satisfied  the  aspirations  of 
the  Greek  people.  The  new  kingdom  of  Greece  was 
formed  with  very  restricted  boundaries.  Above  all,  the 
islands  of  the  Archipelago,  and  Crete,  and  Cyprus,  were 
given  back  to  their  Ottoman  rulers.  A  monarchy  was 
established,  and  the  crown  was  offered  to  Prince  Leopold, 
the  widowed  husband  of  the  English  princess  Charlotte. 
After  some  hesitation  he  refused  it,  saying  he  foresaw  that 
the  Greeks  would  never  be  satisfied  with  a  boundary  so  re- 
stricted as  that  which  his  obligations  to  the  Treaty  would 
compel  him  to  maintain.  In  this  decision  he  was  guided 
by  the  advice  of  his  friend  Baron  Stockmar,  but  Leopold 
is  believed  to  have  long  regretted  it. 

The  crown  of  Greece  was  finally  accepted  for  Prince 
Otho  of  Bavaria,  a  minor,  a  Roman  Catholic,  a  heavy  lad 
without  talent  or  vivacity,  and  a  scion  of  a  house  afflicted 
with  insanity.  He  was  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
nation  he  was  called  upon  to  govern,  became  very  un- 
popular, and  of  his  own  freewill  abdicated  in  1863,  after 
enduring  sovereignty  for  thirty-one  years. 

The  liberation  of  Greece  was  in  some  sort  payment  of 
the  debt  of  gratitude  that  Europe  and  America  owe  to  that 
diminutive  but  glorious  country,  the  birthplace  of  the  poetry, 


TURKS,  RUSSIANS,   AND   GREEKS.  83 

the  political  science,  the  fine  arts,  and  the  philosophy  of 
the  civilized  world.  In  the  war  of  independence,  Greek 
heroes,  such  as  Kanaris  and  Marco  Bozzaris,  did  deeds  not 
unworthy  of  warriors  in  the  ancient  world ;  but  that,  alas  ! 
was  all.  Every  man  seems  to  have  fought  for  his  own 
hand,  and  to  have  been  as  ready  to  find  an  enemy  in  a 
Greek  as  in  a  Turk,  if  that  Greek  or  his  interests  were 
opposed  to  him. 

The  resurrection  of  Greece  forms  a  brilliant  episode  in 
modern  history,  and  if  she  is  sometimes  reproached  be- 
cause sixty  years  of  liberty  have  passed  over  her  without 
any  indications  of  vitality  beyond  the  changes  everywhere 
brought  about  by  the  world-wide  advance  of  science  and 
civilization,  we  must  remember  that  with  her  restricted 
limits,  her  national  poverty,  her  impoverished  soil,  it  would 
be  unjust  to  expect  she  should  at  once  renew  the  age  of 
Pericles.  Of  late  years,  under  her  present  king,  George  of 
Denmark.  —  who,  standing  in  his  court  with  his  fair  locks, 
presents  a  strange  contrast  to  his  swarthy,  dark-haired 
courtiers,  —  she  has  made  great  advances  in  education,  in 
credit,  and  in  material  civilization.  Nevertheless,  her  best 
possessions  are  still  the  remains  of  Homer's  language,  and 
the  ruins  she  has  inherited  from  the  Greece  that  was  once 
the  glory  of  the  world. 

"We  must  at  all  risks  maintain  the  integrity  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire "  has  been  long  a  maxim  of  European 
diplomacy.  "  I  decline  to  argue  with  any  man,"  said  Mr. 
Pitt,  "  who  does  not  see  that  in  the  interests  of  England 
the  Ottoman  Empire  must  be  preserved." 

It  is  said  that  when  Alexander  and  Napoleon  were  in- 
timate friends,  they  discussed  together  the  division  of 
Turkey,  but  Napoleon  insisted  that  France  must  have 
Constantinople,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  which  was  not  satisfactory 
to  the  Emperor  Alexander.  Napoleon  from  his  earliest 
years  had  a  craving  for  the  empire  of  the  East,  and  said 
at  St.  Helena  that  had  not  Sir  Sidney  Smith  repulsed  him  at 
Acre  he  would  have  been  seated  on  the  Byzantine  throne. 


84       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

In  1830,  after  the  formation  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece, 
Turkey,  in  Europe  and  Asia  (not  counting  the  countries 
which  paid  her  tribute  along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa) , 
consisted  of  two  hundred  and  eighty- eight  thousand  square 
miles  of  territory,  inhabited  by  seventeen  millions  of  people. 
The  same  amount  of  territory  in  western  Europe  was  inhab- 
ited by  ninety-seven  millions.  This  was  a  powerful  argu- 
ment for  those  who  wished  to  see  the  garden  of  the  earth 
opened  to  modern  civilization ;  but  over  and  over  again 
the  question  rose  :  Drive  the  Turks  out  of  Europe,  and  who 
shall  have  Constantinople? 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   CZAR   NICHOLAS. 

A  GREAT  difficulty  presents  itself  to  those  who  desire  to 
**  understand  any  subject  relating  to  Russia  or  its  impe- 
rial family;  for  while  the  world  looks  upon  Russia  as  a 
seething  mass  of  misery  and  corruption,  and  holds  her 
imperial  ruler  responsible  for  this  state  of  things,  all  per- 
sons brought  into  personal  contact  with  this  terrible  auto- 
crat and  his  household  find  them  (from  Alexander  I.  down 
to  the  present  day)  persons  who  command  respect,  —  with 
noble  qualities  that  from  time  to  time  conspicuously  shine 
forth  as  occasion  offers,  and  with  every-day  household  vir- 
tues such  as  make  the  whole  world  kin. 

When  the  struggle  of  all  Europe  with  Napoleon  was  over, 
the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  started  on  a  tour  to  foreign 
courts  and  foreign  countries.  He  visited  England  during 
the  year  of  Princess  Charlotte's  brief  married  happiness, 
and  Stockmar,  writing  at  that  period,  said  :  — 

"  He  is  taller  than  Leopold,  without  being  thin,  and  straight  as 
a  pine.  His  features  are  extremely  regular,  the  forehead  hand- 
some and  open,  eyebrows  finely  arched,  nose  particularly  hand- 
some, mouth  well-shaped,  and  chin  finely  chiselled.  There  is  an 
air  of  great  self-reliance  about  him,  but  at  the  same  time  a 
manifest  absence  of  pretension." 

On  his  return  to  Russia  he  married  the  princess  who  had 
been  selected  for  him  by  his  family,  and  never  were  hus- 
band and  wife  more  devoted  to  each  other.  She  was 
Princess  Maria  Charlotte  of  Prussia,  daughter  of  King 
Frederick  William  II.,  and  of  his  charming  queen,  Louise, 


86       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

whose  memory  is  so  dear  to  her  descendants  and  to  all 
Germany.  As  the  wife  of  every  Russian  sovereign  must 
adopt  the  Orthodox  faith  of  which  her  husband  is  the  head, 
it  seems  to  be  the  custom  of  these  ladies,  on  their  baptism, 
to  take  the  name  of  Marie  Feodorovna,1  a  practice  which 
makes  it  somewhat  hard  to  distinguish  them.  Thus  the 
uncle  of  Alexander  II.  was  the  old  emperor  William  of 
Germany.  Alexander  II.  and  the  emperor  Frederick  were 
first  cousins,  and  the  present  emperor  of  Germany,  Wil- 
liam II.,  and  the  emperor  of  Russia,  Alexander  III.,  are 
second  cousins. 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter  how  on  the  death 
of  Alexander  I.  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  then  at  St. 
Petersburg,  had  his  elder  brother  Constantine  proclaimed 
emperor  and  caused  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him  to  be 
taken  by  the  Council  and  the  army.  But  no  sooner  was 
this  done  than  a  sealed  packet  was  presented  to  him,  con- 
taining Constantine's  resignation  of  his  right  of  succession. 
Messengers  had  already  been  despatched  to  Constantine  at 
Warsaw,  who  brought  back  his  reiterated  refusal  to  ascend 
the  Russian  throne.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  return 
unopened  letters  addressed  to  him  as  his  Majesty  the 
emperor  of  Russia,  saying  that  he  was  not  the  person  they 
were  intended  for. 

On  Dec.  24,  1825,  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  consented 
to  accept  the  sceptre,  and  to  date  his  accession  to  the 
throne  from  the  day  of  the  death  of  his  brother  Alexander. 
On  the  next  day  the  great  officers  of  State  and  the  Holy 
Synod  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him.  The  next  day 
the  army  was  to  do  the  same  thing ;  but  unfortunately  the 
common  soldiers  had  not  had  it  made  clear  to  them  that 
Constantine,  to  whom  they  had  taken  the  oath  two  weeks 
before,  had  declined  to  be  their  emperor. 

There  was  at  that  moment  a  vast  conspiracy  extending 
all  over  Russia  to  depose  the  dynasty  of  the  Romanoffs  and 
set  up  a  new  dynasty  pledged  to  govern  as  constitutional 
sovereigns.  Some  men  of  true  patriotism  were  concerned 

1  Nicholas  not  being  czarevitch,  his  bride  was  baptized  Alexandra- 


THE   CZAR  NICHOLAS.  8/ 

in  this  conspiracy,  but  its  active  members  seem  to  have 
been  of  the  same  stuff  as  modern  nihilists. 

When  the  Romanoffs,  in  1613,  were  chosen  rulers  of 
Russia  by  an  assembly  of  nobles,  there  was  a  rival  candi- 
date, Prince  Troubetskoi.  It  was  the  representative  of 
this  family  who  was  now  placed  at  the  head  of  the  con- 
spiracy j  but  he  was  not  unscrupulous  enough  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  his  followers,  and  when  the  time  for  action  came 
he  kept  himself  in  the  background.  The  uncertainty  that 
attended  the  order  of  succession,  the  hesitation  of  Nicholas, 
and  the  distance  of  Constantine  from  the  scene  of  action 
made  the  moment  seem  propitious  to  the  conspirators. 
Agents  went  among  the  soldiers,  and  proclaimed  that 
Nicholas  was  about  to  thrust  himself  into  his  brother's 
place,  and  that  the  vengeance  of  Constantine  would  fall  on 
all  who  aided  and  abetted  the  usurper.  By  the  morning  of 
December  26,  the  conspirators  had  succeeded  in  drawing 
over  to  their  side  three  regiments  of  household  troops  in 
garrison  at  St.  Petersburg.  These  were  marched  into  the 
great  square  of  St.  Isaac,  and  stationed  behind  the  eques- 
trian statue  of  Peter  the  Great.  An  immense  crowd  assem- 
bled round  them,  composed  largely  of  sympathizers  anxious 
to  vindicate  the  supposed  rights  of  the  absent  Constantine. 
Men  went  among  them  rousing  their  indignation  and 
enthusiasm,  some  even  representing  that  they  had  just  come 
from  Warsaw,  where  they  had  witnessed  the  arrest  of  the 
Grand  Dukes  Constantine  and  Michael. 

Meantime  Nicholas  was  busy  in  the  Winter  Palace,  where 
the  oath  was  being  administered  to  about  thirteen  thousand 
soldiers,  the  remaining  troops  in  garrison  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. On  learning  what  was  passing  in  the  great  square, 
he  ordered  several  regiments  to  face  the  rioters ;  then  he 
rode  forth  surrounded  by  his  generals  and  staff,  and  con- 
fronted the  insurgents. 

"  At  this  moment  an  officer  was  seen  to  gallop  from  the  midst 
of  the  disaffected  regiments,  his  right  hand  thrust  into  the  breast 
of  his  uniform.  As  he  approached,  the  emperor  advanced  to 


88        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

meet  him ;  and  when  they  had  arrived  at  a  sword's  length  from 
each  other  Nicholas  enquired,  'What  do  you  bring  me?' 
The  officer  met  the  emperor's  steady  gaze ;  his  hand  moved 
convulsively  under  his  uniform ;  he  turned  his  horse,  and  with- 
out saying  a  word  rode  back  to  his  associates.  Said  he,  *  The 
czar  looked  at  me  with  such  a  terrible  glance  that  I  could  not 
kill  him.'  .  .  .  Nicholas  seems  to  have  been  anxious  to  avoid 
shedding  the  blood  of  his  subjects.  He  requested  General 
Miloradovitch,  governor-general  of  St.  Petersburg,  to  address 
the  rebels.  He  did  so,  but  his  voice  was  drowned  in  shouts  of 
'  Long  live  the  Emperor  Constantine  ! '  .  .  .  At  the  same  moment 
one  of  the  revolutionary  leaders  rode  up  to  the  old  general  and 
discharged  his  pistol.  He  fell  mortally  wounded.  He  had  been 
called  the  Murat  of  Russia,  and  had  escaped  the  shafts  of 
death  in  fifty-six  battlefields."  l 

Still  Nicholas  seemed  anxious  to  avoid  bloodshed.  He 
ordered  his  cavalry  to  charge,  but  the  crowd  was  immovable. 
He  then  ordered  up  his  cannon,  and  volley  after  volley 
crashed  into  the  dense  mass  of  the  insurgents.  The  crowd 
fled  across  the  frozen  waters  of  the  Neva. 

At  six  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  this  memorable  day 
Nicholas  re-entered  the  Winter  Palace.  He  found  the 
empress  bathed  in  tears  and  trembling  with  terror. 
Indeed,  she  never  recovered  the  shock  her  nerves  had 
received  on  this  occasion. 

The  emperor  had  dared  the  most  imminent  danger,  had 
exhibited  the  utmost  intrepidity,  and  had  achieved  a  decisive 
victory  over  a  powerful  and  dangerous  conspiracy. 

All  particulars  of  the  conspiracy  were  revealed  by  Trou- 
betskoi,  who,  when  he  made  his  confession,  fell  at  the 
emperor's  feet  and  asked  for  life.  It  was  granted,  with  the 
scornful  remark  from  Nicholas,  "If  you  have  the  courage 
to  support  a  life  dishonored  thus,  I  grant  it.  But  it  is  all 
I  promise." 

The  next  morning  the  emperor,  accompanied  by  only 
one  aide-de-camp,  reviewed  his  troops.  The  soldiers  who 
had  revolted  in  favor  of  Constantine  were  treated  with 

1  S.  M.  Schumucker's  History  of  Nicholas  I  of  Russia. 


THE  CZAR  NICHOLAS. 


89 


great  clemency.  Not  so  the  revolutionary  leaders  and 
instigators  of  the  conspiracy.  Among  these  was  Festal, 
who,  on  the  eve  of  execution,  wrote  the  march  that  bears 
his  name.  Yet  Nicholas  showed  kindness  to  his  family,  and 
promoted  his  brother  to  be  his  aide-de-camp. 

A  very  remarkable  document  is  in  existence  called  the 
Will  of  Peter  the  Great.  Its  authenticity  in  its  present 
form  is  doubtful,  but  the  existence  of  some  such  document 
containing  advice  to  his  successors  is  indubitable.  Podewils 
reported  to  the  great  Frederick,  while  prime  minister,  that 
the  Russian  envoy  at  Berlin  had  told  him  of  a  paper  in 
which  future  Russian  emperors  were  counselled  to  maintain 
friendship  with  Prussia.  A  Pole  subsequently  gave  to 
Frederick  William,  in  1798,  a  memorandum  concerning  the 
Will  of  Peter  the  Great,  written  after  the  perusal  of  the 
original  document,  which  he  had  seen  in  the  Russian 
archives. 

In  1812  this  "plan"  of  Peter  the  Great  was  published 
in  Paris  in  a  newspaper,  by  Lasur,  a  clerk  in  the  French 
Foreign  Office.  Some  persons  think  that  the  memorandum 
of  the  Pole  was  cooked  by  Lasur  to  suit  the  views  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon,  who  was  then  on  the  eve  of  his  Russian 
campaign ;  others,  from  internal  evidence,  maintain  its 
authenticity.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  said  that  Nicholas,  as 
grand  duke  and  as  czar,  received  it  as  a  message  from  his 
great  ancestor  ;  and  he  certainly  adopted  its  advice,  which 
may  be  summed  up  as  follows  :  — 

Peter  begins  by  a  prophetic  declaration  that  as  western 
Europe  has  repeatedly  in  the  past  found  itself  obliged  to 
submit  to  swarming  races  from  the  East,  so  Russia,  in  the 
progress  of  the  world's  evolution,  would  eventually  possess 
all  Europe,  such  being  her  manifest  destiny  and  part  of 
the  scheme  of  Providence.  Therefore  he  advises  :  - 

1.  That  Russia  should  be  always  at  war  with  some  people  or 
peoples  on  her  frontier,  in  order  that  her  armies  may  be  kept  in 
a  state  of  efficiency. 

2.  That  foreigners  of  distinction,  especially  military  officers 


go        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

should  be  encouraged  to  settle  in  Russia,  and  to  take  service 
there. 

3.  That  no  chance  should  be  lost  of  taking  part  in  the  dis- 
putes of  other  European  powers. 

4.  That  Russian  agents  should  intrigue  in  foreign  courts  and 
with  the  legislatures   of  other    peoples   on    behalf  of    Russian 
interests. 

5.  That  Sweden  (then  owning  Finland)  should  be  despoiled 
of  territory. 

6.  That  Russian  princes  should  seek  wives  in  Germany. 

7.  That  England  should  be  propitiated  in  view  of  commercial 
advantages. 

8.  That  the  frontier  of  Russia  should  be  everywhere  extended  ; 
north  along  the  Baltic,  south  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 

9.  That  Russia  should  never  cease  to  desire  the  acquisition 
of  Constantinople,  and  the  commerce  of  India;  also  that  she 
should  aim  to  establish  herself  on  the  Persian  Gulf. 

10.  That  everything  should  be  done  to  cement  a  firm  alliance 
with  Austria,  but  at  the  same  time  that  Austria's  strength  should 
be  sapped  by   fomenting   dissatisfaction    among   her    various 
peoples. 

1 1.  That  Austria  should  be  reconciled  to  the  Russian  acquisi- 
tion of  Constantinople,  or,  if  that  were  impossible,  should  be 
debarred  from  interference  by  being  drawn  into   a   European 
war. 

1 2.  That  the  Greeks  should  be  taken  everywhere  under  the 
protection  of  Russia, 

13.  That  when  Sweden,  Poland,  and  Turkey  should  be   all 
made  Russian,  overtures  should  be  made  to  France  and  Austria 
to  share  with    Russia   the   dominion    of  the   world.     If  either 
declined,  Russia  should  find  some  pretext  for  a  quarrel,  the  issue 
of  which  could  not  be  doubtful,  as  she  would  then  be  mistress 
of  the  East  and  the  best  part  of  Europe. 

14.  If  both  France  and  Austria  should  reject  these  overtures 
Russia  should  invade  Germany,  sweep  the  coasts  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  the    Atlantic   with    her   fleets,  and  simultaneously 
overrun  France  and  Germany.     When  these  countries  should 
be  fully  conquered  the  rest  would  fall   easily   and   without  a 
struggle. 

Such  is  the  policy  which,  whether  shadowed  out  or  not 
by  Peter  the  Great,  has  been  apparently  in   the  main  the 


THE   CZAR  NICHOLAS.  gi 

policy  of  his  successors  ;  and  of  late  years  state  secrets  have 
come  to  light  which  enable  us  to  see  how  the  Emperor 
Nicholas  had  laid  to  heart  his  ancestor's  advice  in  the  i3th 
clause  of  his  testamentary  document,  and  how  in  the  last 
years  of  Charles  X.  of  France  he  labored  to  effect  with  him 
an  alliance  which  should  further  his  designs  upon  Con- 
stantinople. 

Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo  was  a  Corsican,  and  we  might  call 
him  a  statesman  of  fortune.  He  cherished  an  hereditary 
enmity  to  the  Bonapartes,  especially  to  Napoleon,  with 
whom,  when  Corsica  became  French  in  1797,  he  had  a 
personal  quarrel,  and  decided  to  seek  advancement  in  other 
countries. 

After  various  experiences  as  a  diplomatist  in  the  service 
of  England  and  Austria,  he  attached  himself  in  1811  to  the 
Emperor  Alexander,  and  for  many  years  after  the  Restora- 
tion was  the  Russian  ambassador  in  Paris  at  the  courts  of 
Louis  XVIII.  and  his  successor.  He  tried  to  marry  the 
Grand  Duchess  Anna,  sister  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  to 
the  Due  de  Berry ;  but  the  negotiation  was  not  successful, 
as  the  lady  would  not  change  her  religion. 

The  Emperor  Alexander,  not  long  before  his  death,  fore- 
saw that  there  must  be  war  in  the  end  between  Turkey  and 
Russia,  arising  out  of  the  affairs  of  Greece  ;  and  as  such  a 
war  need  not  be  considered  by  the  world  to  be  prompted 
by  sympathy  with  revolution,  he  suggested  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Charles  X,  that,  if  France  would  support  him  in  the 
acquisition  and  retention  of  Constantinople,  he  would  repay 
the  service  by  any  return  that  could  be  pointed  out  to  him. 
Nothing  further  passed  till  after  the  battle  of  Navarino, 
three  years  later,  when  the  French  government  —  treach- 
erous to  its  allies  —  proposed  to  the  Emperor  Nicholas  a 
scheme  of  alliance,  "  involving  not  only  the  partition  of 
Turkey,  but  the  reconstruction  of  the  map  of  Europe,  from 
which  Holland  and  Saxony  were  to  be  erased  as  independent 
kingdoms."  J 

1  Edinburgh  Review,  1892. 


92       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

The  proposition  had  not  been  received  at  St.  Petersburg, 
however,  when  news  reached  Paris  that  the  war  of  1828 
between  Russia  and  Turkey  had  been  abruptly  concluded  by 
the  Peace  of  Adrianople.  Had  the  engagement  been  carried 
out,  France  offered  to  acquiesce  in  the  acquisition  by  Rus- 
sia of  a  large  part  of  Turkey,  while  she  herself  was  to  obtain 
Belgium,  Luxembourg,  and  the  frontier  of  the  Rhine, 
Prussia  was  to  be  propitiated  by  the  annexation  of  Saxony 
and  Holland ;  Austria,  by  receiving  Servia,  Bosnia,  and 
Herzegovina ;  while  it  was  hoped  England  would  give  her 
consent  if  bribed  by  the  offer  of  the  Dutch  colonies.  It  is 
not  certain  that  this  scheme  provided  for  the  possession  of 
Constantinople  by  the  czar.  It  is  thought  likely  that  the 
intention  may  have  been  to  form  a  small  weak  empire  of 
Greece,  with  Constantinople  as  its  capital.  But  such 
schemes  and  negotiations  were  defeated  by  the  follies  com- 
mitted by  Charles  X.,  which  brought  on  a  revolution. 

Until  the  papers  of  Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo  were  recently 
published,  it  had  always  seemed  to  the  world  as  if  the  rage 
of  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  on  learning  the  elevation  of  Louis 
Philippe,  had  been  excessive  and  unreasonable.  We  see 
now  that  it  ruined  his  schemes.  He  massed  his  troops  for 
an  immediate  war  with  France ;  and  thus  it  happened  that 
the  Revolution  in  Poland  in  1830  found  him  prepared  to 
crush  it  at  once. 

In  vain  Louis  Philippe  attempted  to  secure  from  the 
Emperor  Nicholas  recognition  as  a  brother-sovereign.  The 
czar  remained  haughty  and  irreconcilable,  and  it  was  not 
until  four  months  after  Louis  Philippe  was  seated  on  the 
French  throne  that  Pozzo  di  Borgo, .as  Russian  ambassador  at 
Paris,  was  permitted  to  present  him  his  credentials. 

The  Treaty  of  Adrianople  was  followed,  four  years  later,  by 
the  Treaty  of  Unkiar-Skelessi.  By  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople 
Turkey  was  to  pay  Russia  about  thirty  million  dollars  in- 
demnity, and  give  up  to  her  the  command  of  the  mouths  of 
the  Danube,  together  with  certain  territory  bordering  on  the 
Black  Sea.  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  were  to  become  auto- 


THE   CZAR  NICHOLAS.  93 

nomous  principalities,  paying  only  a  small  tribute  to  the 
sultan,  who  thenceforward  was  to  possess  no  fortresses  on 
the  northern  bank  of  the  Danube  ;  nor  was  any  Moslem  to 
hold  property  there.  Sultan  Mahmoud  is  said  to  have 
wept  and  torn  his  beard  with  rage  as  he  signed  these  hard 
terms,  which  he  would  probably  have  resisted  had  he 
known  the  condition  of  Diebitsch's  army,  reduced  by  sick- 
ness to  twenty  thousand  men. 

Subsequently,  in  1833  and  1834,  when  the  power  of  the 
Porte  was  threatened  by  the  victories  of  Ibrahim  Pasha, 
Russia  stepped  forward  as  the  sultan's  friend  and  pro- 
tector. Nicholas  considered  that  no  one  should  threaten 
Constantinople  but  himself.  This  alliance  between  the 
sultan  and  the  czar  was  cemented  by  a  new  treaty,  signed 
June  26,  1833,  containing  a  secret  clause,  which  converted 
the  Black  Sea  into  a  Russian  lake,  and  caused  great  indigna- 
tion in  western  Europe  when  its  existence  was  discovered. 
By  this  secret  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Unkiar-Skelessi  the 
straits  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles  were  opened  to 
the  fleets  of  Russia,  and  closed  to  those  of  all  other  na- 
tions. The  czar  posed  before  Europe  as  the  generous  ally 
and  confidential  friend  of  the  sultan,  who  was  expected 
thenceforward  to  walk  by  Russian  advice  in  the  administra- 
tion of  his  government,  and  to  abandon  his  confidence  in 
England.  It  was  a  conspiracy  not  unlike  that  in  the  history 
of  the  two  showmen  recorded  in  "  Master  Humphrey's 
Clock,"  where  little  Nell  was  exhorted  to  discover  that 
Codlin  was  her  friend,  and  not  Short. 

Before  Nicholas  in  1828  marched  his  armies  on  to 
Turkish  soil  he  had  tested  their  endurance  and  their  disci- 
pline in  a  war  with  Persia.  In  this  war  General  Paskievitch 
won  his  laurels,  and  at  the  close  of  it  he  was  enabled  to 
harangue  his  soldiers  thus  :  "  Brave  comrades,  you  have  con- 
quered in  this  campaign  two  provinces,  taken  eight  stand- 
ards, fifty  guns,  two  sirdars,  twenty  khans,  six  thousand 
prisoners  in  arms,  ten  thousand  who  had  cast  them  away, 
and  great  stores  of  provisions.  Such  are  your  trophies  !  " 


94       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

I  fancy  very  few  of  us  have  any  clear  ideas  as  to  the  geo- 
graphical relations  of  Russia,  Turkey,  and  Persia.  Between 
the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian  seas  is  a  wide  strip  of  land 
including  several  states  and  provinces,  which  is  commonly 
known  to  us  by  the  name  of  the  Caucasus.  Upon  the 
inhabitants  of  this  land  "Russia  has  been  making  war  during 
the  whole  of  the  present  century,  thus  keeping  her  armies 
actively  employed  on  her  frontier,  according  to  the  views  of 
Peter  the  Great.  The  countries  included  in  this  strip  of 
territory  are  Georgia,  Circassia,  Mingrelia,  Daghestan, 
Russian  Armenia,  and  Shirvan,  and  Karabaugh.  Georgia 
was  acquired  by  Russia  in  1802.  Its  last  hereditary  prince 
died  in  St.  Petersburg  not  many  years  ago.  Circassia  became 
Russian  in  1829.  Mingrelia,  whose  hereditary  prince  (now 
a  Russian  nobleman)  was  the  candidate  recently  supported 
by  Russia  for  the  throne  of  Bulgaria,  was  acquired  in  1 804  ; 
Daghestan  in  1813  ;  Shirvan  at  the  same  time  ;  Karabaugh, 
by  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople,  was  made  Russian  in  1828; 
and  Russian  Armenia  became  Russian  the  same  year.  But 
though  Russia  nominally  holds  sway  over  these  provinces 
she  wages  perpetual  war  upon  the  people  who  inhabit  them. 

The  mountains  of  the  Caucasus  run  diagonally  through 
these  territories.  The  range,  at  its  northern  end,  touches 
the  Black  Sea,  at  its  southern  the  Caspian. 

To  these  regions  all  Russian  regiments  are  sent  if  they 
are  untrained,  or  are  suspected  of  disaffection,  and  all 
officers  who  have  committed  any  military  offence,  or  whose 
extravagance  or  ill-regulated  habits  have  been  brought  by 
their  families  to  the  notice  of  the  emperor.  In  the  Caucasus 
they  undergo,  as  it  were,  a  sort  of  penal  military  probation. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Caucasus  are  by  some  thought  to 
be  descendants  of  the  Crusaders.  Their  complexion  and 
features  are  European,  their  dress  and  military  equipments 
are  more  mediaeval  than  Asiatic,  and  though  Russia  nomi- 
nally owns  their  country,  with  its  mountain  pastures  and  its 
fruitful  valleys,  they  have  fought  the  fight  of  brave  men,  and 
to  this  day  are  only  partially  subdued. 


THE  CZAR  NICHOLAS.  95 

On  the  accession  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  he  appointed 
General  Paskievitch  to  command  his  armies  in  the  Caucasus  ; 
but  for  some  time  the  attention  of  Paskievitch  was  too  much 
absorbed  by  a  war  with  Persia,  and  by  the  war  of  1828  in 
Asia  Minor,  to  give  much  attention  to  the  mountaineers. 

The  war  with  Turkey  being  terminated  by  the  Peace  of 
Adrianople,  Paskievitch  had  leisure  to  turn  his  attention 
more  completely  to  the  yet  unsubdued  Caucasian  tribes, 
who  refused  to  pay  tribute  to  his  sovereign.  But  he  was 
called  away,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1831  to  conduct  the  Polish 
War,  and  to  succeed  General  Diebitsch,  who  had  died  of 
cholera. 

While  Paskievitch  was  absent  in  Poland,  Schamyl  appeared 
as  the  leader  of  his  people.  He  had  risen  from  a  very 
humble  station,  but  he  claimed  to  have  received  a  mission 
from  heaven  through  Mahomet  the  Prophet,  who  had 
assured  him  he  should  be  invincible  in  war,  and  that  no 
wound  should  ever  kill  him.  "  Though  it  is  difficult,"  said 
one  who  knew  him,1  "  to  see  clearly  through  the  thick  haze 
which  shrouds  political  events  among  the  wild  mountains 
and  defiles  of  the  Caucasus,  we  know  enough  of  Schamyl 
to  excite  our  interest,  and  even  our  respect  for  him.  By 
paths  unknown  to  European  ambition,  by  dauntless  cour- 
age, an  austere  simplicity,  rare  self-denial,  great  firm- 
ness of  purpose  and  promptitude  of  action,  by  some 
intrigues,  and  by  many  cruelties,  he  raised  himself  to  a 
position  of  unexampled  authority  among  his  countrymen." 
The  title  by  which  he  was  known  among  them  was  the 
Imam.  In  alliance  with  Kasi  Mullah,  another  Circassian 
leader,  Schamyl  roused  all  Daghestan,  and  met  with  remark- 
able success.  But  after  desperate  fighting,  one  leader  of  the 
mountaineers  was  killed,  and  Schamyl  himself  was  so 
severely  wounded  that  his  recovery  strengthened  the  belief 
of  his  people  in  his  mission  as  an  envoy  of  the  Prophet. 
His  forces,  Which  had  been  dispersed,  rallied,  not  as  an 
army,  but  in  innumerable  armed  bands,  and  for  eighteen 

1  Chambers'  Journal,  1861. 


96        RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

years  the  war  was  carried  on,  Schamyl  and  his  men  hold- 
ing the  mountain  passes,  which  commanded  large  tracts  of 
fertile  country.  The  Russians  were  shut  up  for  the  most 
part  in  forts  or  in  military  encampments,  which  barely  kept 
open  their  communications  with  St.  Petersburg,  but  they 
were  afraid  to  go  beyond  the  range  of  their  own  guns, 
except  in  large  bodies. 

In  1837  the  Emperor  Nicholas  visited  the  Caucasus  with 
a  view  of  striking  terror  into  the  hearts  of  Schamyl  and  his 
followers  ;  but  the  mountaineers  were  not  to  be  intimidated, 
although  the  czar  put  forth  a  proclamation  assuring  them 
that  he  had  powder  enough  to  blow  up  all  their  mountains. 
But  the  terrible  corruption  which  permeates  all  branches  of 
the  government  service  in  Russia,  and  which  in  the  Caucasus 
received  heroic  treatment  forty  years  later  at  the  hands  of 
General  Skobeleff,  was  made  known  to  the  czar  during  his 
visit.  It  excited  his  indignation,  and  led  to  some  spasmodic 
attempts  at  vigorous  reform.  But  even  the  Autocrat  of  all 
the  Russias  is  no  match  for  the  spirit  of  corruption  pervad- 
ing the  bureaucracy  in  his  dominions. 

In  1840,  and  for  three  succeeding  years,  Schamyl  gained 
advantages  over  successive  Russian  generals.  But  early  in 
1845  General  Woronzoff  arrived  at  the  seat  of  war  with 
powers  more  unlimited  than  had  been  granted  to  any  Rus- 
sian subject  since  the  days  of  the  Empress  Catherine.  He 
was,  in  fact,  made  autocrat  over  all  the  country,  from  the 
Pruth  to  the  Araxes.  He  began  by  attacking  Dorgo,  the 
stronghold  of  Schamyl,  and  took  it  without  difficulty,  as  it 
was  weakly  defended;  but  as  his  army  was  retreating 
Schamyl  suddenly  threw  himself  upon  it  with  such  fury 
that  it  was  annihilated.  Only  the  general,  some  of  his 
officers,  and  four  thousand  men  escaped.  It  is  proof  of  the 
magnanimity  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  that  he  shortly  after 
raised  Woronzoff  to  the  rank  of  Prince. 

Instead  of  sending  great  expeditions  against  the  tribes, 
Woronzoff  advised  the  emperor  to  weary  them  by  delay, 
detaching  if  possible  the  smaller  states  by  bribes  and 


THE  CZAR  NICHOLAS.  97 

promises.  But  the  first  one  that  took  advantage  of  such 
offers  was  nearly  annihilated  by  Schamyl,  and  defection  was 
summarily  put  an  end  to.1 

In  1835  the  czar  met  the  king  of  Prussia  on  the  frontier 
of  their  dominions  under  cover  of  a  grand  review,  but  in 
reality  to  discuss  what  might  be  done  to  extinguish  the 
little  republic  of  Cracow,  the  last  remnant  of  Polish  inde- 
pendence. The  result  of  this  interview  was  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  year  a  requisition  was  suddenly  sent 
to  the  republic  from  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  requiring 
the  authorities  to  expel  all  refugees,  from  those  nations 
within  eight  days,  or  else  recognition  of  the  independence 
of  the  republic  by  those  three  Powers  would  be  withdrawn. 
As  the  Senate  of  Cracow  begged  for  delay,  Russian  and 
Austrian  troops  marched  into  the  city.  The  refugees  were 
shipped  off  to  America,  and  foreign  troops  were  perma- 
nently placed  in  garrison.  Cracow  has  since  been  annexed 
to  the  Austro- Polish  Province  of  Galicia,  thus  setting  aside 
one  of  the  arrangements  agreed  upon  by  European  govern- 
ments at  the  Congress  of  Vienna. 

At  the  close  of  the  month  of  May,  1844,  Queen  Victoria 
and  Prince  Albert  were  taken  by  surprise  by  an  announce- 
ment that  the  emperor  of  Russia  was  about  to  pay  them  a 
visit.  They  had  only  forty-eight  hours  in  which  to  prepare 
for  his  arrival.  The  king  of  Saxony  was  at  that  moment 
staying  at  Windsor.  It  was  the  emperor's  fashion  to  make 
all  his  visits  thus  suddenly.  On  the  night  of  his  arrival  in 
London  he  went  to  the  residence  of  his  ambassador,  and 
the  next  day  was  escorted  by  Prince  Albert  to  Buckingham 

1  It  may  be  here  added  that  after  this  mountain  chief  had  waged 
war  twenty-five  years,  from  1834  1859,  with  the  most  distinguished 
generals  in  the  Russian  service,  and  had  made  the  country  over 
which  he  ruled  one  of  the  greatest  military  schools  in  the  world,  he 
surrendered,  to  save  the  lives  of  the  mere  handful  of  devoted  fol- 
lowers who  still  remained  true  to  him.  The  Russian  government 
assigned  him  a  liberal  pension,  and  a  pleasant  residence  in  the  town 
of  Kalouga :  where,  until  his  death,  he  held  friendly  social  relations 
with  the  Russian  authorities. 


98         RUSSIA  AND  TURKEV  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Palace,  where  he  was  presented  to  Queen  Victoria.  The 
day  following  he  went  to  Windsor.  The  prince,  who  had 
preceded  him,  met  him  at  the  station,  and  conducted  him 
to  the  Castle.  He  was  greatly  impressed  by  the  palace  at 
Windsor  and  by  what  he  saw  of  the  English  court  during 
his  five  days'  stay  there.  He  said  that  everything  seemed 
to  move  without  effort,  and  as  if  nothing  more  than  ordi- 
nary were  going  on.  He  had  come  over  to  England  to  see 
things  for  himself,  instead  of  trusting  to  diplomatists ;  and 
he  had,  no  doubt,  the  intention,  in  his  interviews  with 
members  of  the  English  Cabinet,  of  feeling  his  way  upon 
the  Eastern  Question.  He  did  not  talk  politics  to  the 
queen,  but  conversed  much  with  Prince  Albert  and  Lord 
Aberdeen.  To  almost  every  one  he  said  in  substance : 
"  1  know  that  I  am  taken  for  an  actor,  but  indeed  I  am 
not ;  I  am  thoroughly  straightforward.  I  say  what  I  mean ; 
and  what  I  promise,  I  fulfil." 

He  had,  he  said,  been  all  his  life  desirous  to  stand  well 
with  England,  and  mentioned  that  when  he  was  a  little  boy 
his  beautiful  mother  had  once  taken  him  to  an  eminence, 
and  pointing  to  the  West  had  told  him  that  there  lay 
the  nation  beyond  seas  in  whom  he  should  ever  seek  a 
friend. 

France  he  openly  professed  to  have  no  interest  in,  and 
her  opinion  he  did  not  care  about.  To  Sir  Robert  Peel 
he  said  :  "  I  do  not  covet  an  inch  of  Turkish  soil  for  my- 
self, but  neither  will  I  allow  any  one  else  to  have  one." 

He  was  exceedingly  impressed  with  Prince  Albert,  ex- 
pressing to  him  earnestly  his  wish  that  they  might  one  day 
be  found  on  the  same  side,  should  Europe  be  engaged  in 
any  quarrel.  To  others  he  said  that  he  wished  he  had  the 
prince  for  a  son. 

The  queen,  writing  to  King  Leopold,  says  of  this  visit : 

"  A  great  compliment  it  certainly  was,  and  the  people  here 
are  much  flattered  by  it.  The  emperor  is  certainly  a  very  strik- 
ing looking  man,  still  very  handsome.  His  profile  is  beautiful 
and  his  manners  most  dignified  and  graceful,  extremely  civil,  — 


THE  CZAR  NICHOLAS. 


99 


indeed  alarmingly  so;  he  is  full  of  attentions  vsx&politesses.  But 
the  expression  of  the  eyes  is  severe,  and  unlike  anything  I  ever 
saw  before.  He  gives  Albert  and  myself  the  impression  of  a 
man  who  is  not  happy,  and  on  whom  the  burthen  of  his  im- 
mense power  and  position  weighs  heavily  and  painfully.  He 
seldom  smiles,  and,  when  he  does,  the  expression  is  not  a  happy 
one.  He  is  very  easy  to  get  on  with.  .  .  .  He  amused  the 
king  of  Saxony  and  me  by  saying  he  was  si  embarrasse  when 
people  were  presented  to  him,  and  that  he  felt  si  gauche  en  frac 
(that  is,  in  plain  clothes),  which  he  is  certainly  quite  unaccus- 
tomed to  wear." 

Military  uniform  had  become  so  habitual  to  him  that 
without  it  he  said  he  felt  "  comme  si  Ton  m'avait  ot£  la 
peau." 

"The  two  last  evenings  of  his  stay,"  the  queen  wrote  in 
her  journal,  "we  had  large  dinners  in  uniform,  the  em- 
peror disliked  so  being  en  jrac,  and  was  so  embarrassed 
about  it." 

"  He  seemed  really  and  unaffectedly  touched,"  she  adds 
at  parting,  "  at  his  reception  and  stay,  —  the  simplicity  and 
quiet  of  which  told  upon  his  love  for  domestic  life,  which 
is  very  great.  At  parting  he  said  with  much  emotion  :  '  1 
leave  you,  madame,  with  a  sad  heart,  and  penetrated  by 
your  kindness  for  me.  You  may  be  sure,  madame,  that  you 
may  count  on  me  at  any  time  as  your  most  devoted  servant. 
May  God  bless  you.'  " 

"  And  now/'  adds  the  queen,  in  another  letter  to  her  uncle 
Leopold,  "  I  will  give  you  my  opinions  and  feelings  on  the  sub- 
ject, which  I  may  say  are  Albert's  too.  I  was  extremely  against 
the  visit,  fearing  the  gene  and  trouble,  and  even  at  first  I  did 
not  feel  at  all  to  like  it ;  but  by  living  in  the  same  house  to- 
gether quietly  and  unrestrainedly  (and  this,  Albert  says,  and  with 
great  truth,  is  the  advantage  of  these  visits,  that  I  not  only  see 
these  great  people,  but  know  them)  I  got  to  know  the  emperor, 
and  he  to  know  me.  There  is  much  about  him  which  I  cannot 
help  liking ,  and  I  think  his  character  is  one  that  should  be 
understood  and  looked  upon  for  once  as  it  is.  He  is  stern  and 
severe,  with  strict  principles  of  duty,  which  nothing  on  earth 
will  make  him  change.  Very  clever  I  do  not  think  him,  and  his 


IOO      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

mind  is  not  a  cultivated  one.  His  education  has  been  neglected. 
Politics  and  military  concerns  are  the  only  things  he  takes  an 
interest  in ;  the  arts  and  all  soft  occupations  he  does  not  care 
for  ;  but  he  is  sincere,  I  am  certain,  —  sincere  even  in  his  most 
despotic  acts,  —  from  a  sense  that  it  is  the  only  way  to  govern. 
He  is  not,  I  am  sure,  aware  of  the  dreadful  cases  of  individual 
misery  that  he  often  causes ;  for  I  can  see  by  various  instances 
that  he  is  kept  in  ignorance  of  many  things  which  his  people 
carry  out  in  most  corrupt  ways ;  while  he  thinks  he  is  extremely 
just.  He  thinks  of  general  measures,  but  does  not  look  into 
details ;  and  I  am  sure  much  never  reaches  his  ears,  and,  as 
you  observe,  how  can  it?  ...  He  asked  for  nothing  whatever. 
He  has  merely  expressed  his  great  desire  to  be  on  the  best 
terms  with  us,  but  not  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  He  is  very 
much  alarmed  about  the  East  and  about  Austria.  He  is,  I 
should  say,  too  frank,  for  he  talks  so  openly  before  people,  — 
which  is  what  he  should  not  do,  —  and  with  difficulty  restrains 
himself.  His  anxiety  to  be  believed  is  very  great;  and  I  must 
say  his  personal  promises  I  am  inclined  to  believe.  Then  his 
feelings  are  very  strong.  He  feels  kindness  deeply,  and  his 
love  for  his  wife  and  children,  —  and  indeed  for  all  children,  — 
is  very  great.  He  said  when  our  children  were  in  the  room  t 
'  Voila  les  doux  moments  de  notre  vie.'  One  can  see  by  the  way 
he  takes  them  up  and  plays  with  them  that  he  is  very  fond  of 
children." 

The  queen  in  her  "  Journal  "  also  says  :  "  I  don't  know 
why,  but  I  can't  help  pitying  him ;  and  the  melancholy 
visible  in  his  countenance  made  us  sad  sometimes."  She 
remarks  too  :  "  He  never  takes  a  drop  of  wine,  and  eats 
very  little.  Albert  thinks  he  is  a  man  inclined  to  give  way 
to  passion,  which  makes  him  act  wrongly  often.  His  ad- 
miration for  beauty  is  very  great." 

In  spite  of  this  admiration  for  beauty  noticed  by  the 
queen,  no  man  was  ever  more  devotedly  attached  to  his 
wife.  He  was  stern  to  his  sons,  but  chivalrous  to  his 
daughters.  When  at  one  time  the  Winter  Palace  was  on 
fire,  and  the  safety  of  his  library  was  threatened,  his  secre- 
tary rushed  to  him  to  know  what  he  should  save  ?  "  Only 
my  portfolio,"  said  the  emperor ;  "  it  contains  all  the  let- 
ters that  the  empress  wrote  to  me  before  our  marriage." 


THE  CZAR  NICHOLAS.  :       IOI 

Of  the  empress  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry  writes  when 
travelling  in  Russia  :  — 

"  The  indescribable  majesty  of  deportment  and  fascinating 
grace  that  mark  this  illustrious  personage  are  very  peculiar. 
Celebrated  as  are  all  the  females  connected  with  the  lamented 
and  beautiful  Queen  Louise  of  Prussia,  there  are  none  of  them 
more  bewitching  in  manner  than  the  empress  of  Russia ;  nor 
is  there  existing,  according  to  all  reports,  a  more  excellent  and 
perfect  being." 

The  Marquise  de  Custine  speaks  of  her  in  equal  terms  of 
praise.  She  bore  her  husband  seven  children,  —  four  sons 
and  three  daughters.  The  sons  were  the  czarevitch,  after- 
wards Alexander  II.,  and  the  Grand  Dukes  Constantine, 
Michael,  and  Nicholas ;  the  daughters,  the  Grand  Duchess 
Maria,  who  married  the  Duke  de  Leuchtenburg,  grandson 
of  Eugene  de  Beauharnais ;  the  Grand  Duchess  Olga,  —  a 
beautiful  woman,  who  married  the  prince  royal  of  Wur- 
temburg;  and  Alexandra,  who  died  in  1851,  having  been 
wife  to  Prince  Frederick  of  Hesse.  The  present  queen  of 
Greece  is  the  granddaughter  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas.  Her 
father  was  his  son,  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine. 

The  health  of  the  empress  was  very  delicate.  She  never 
recovered  from  the  shock  her  nerves  received  when  her 
husband  confronted  his  mutinous  regiments  in  St.  Isaac's 
Square,  immediately  after  his  accession.  Her  life,  too,  was 
a  very  laborious  one,  being  a  continual  round  of  receptions, 
balls,  reviews,  and  all  the  other  functions  demanded  by  her 
position.  In  1847  sne  went  to  Naples  for  her  health,  and 
the  emperor  accompanied  her.  It  is  said  that  he  would  suf- 
fer no  one  but  himself  to  carry  her  from  her  carriage  to  her 
apartment. 

From  1844,  when  the  emperor  visited  England,  to  1854, 
when  another  war  broke  out  between  himself  and  Turkey, 
the  chief  events  in  Russia  that  concerned  Europe  were  the 
extinguishment  in  1846  of  the  last  remnant  of  Polish  inde- 
pendence, and  the  assistance  afforded  to  Austria  by  the 
Emperor  Nicholas  in  her  struggle  with  Kossuth  and  Hun- 


IO2      XUSStf  Ay?  TURKEY  IN  THE  XI XT  a  CENTURY. 

gary.  In  1848  the  Hungarians  almost  believed  themselves 
successful  when  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  still  carrying  out  the 
precepts  of  Peter  the  Great,  marched  an  army  of  more  than 
100,000  men  through  Moldavia  into  the  eastern  provinces 
of  Hungary.  Then  Gorgey,  who  had  been  appointed 
military  dictator  in  1859,  despaired.  With  divided  coun- 
cils, with  divided  aims,  with  divided  generals,  —  nay,  even 
with  a  divided  population,  —  for  the  Slavs  in  the  depen- 
dencies of  Hungary  were  in  revolt,  —  it  seemed  hopeless  to 
fight  the  forces  of  two  emperors.  Nothing  could  exceed 
the  sufferings  of  the  rural  population  of  Hungary  when  the 
Slav  inhabitants  of  its  frontier  provinces  felt  themselves 
strengthened  and  encouraged  by  the  presence  of  the  Rus- 
sians ;  nevertheless,  so  far  as  the  conduct  of  the  regular 
forces  was  concerned,  that  of  the  Russians  was  far  less  cruel 
than  the  behavior  of  the  generals  and  soldiers  of  the  army 
of  Austria. 

Gorgey,  believing  that  further  resistance  would  only  pro- 
long the  sufferings  of  his  country,  surrendered  his  army  at 
Villages  to  the  Russians,  his  officers  breaking  their  swords, 
and  his  troopers  shooting  their  horses  after  hugging  and 
kissing  them.  General  Paskievitch,  who  commanded  the 
Russian  troops,  made  in  return  promises  of  amnesty  in 
the  name  of  the  Austrian  government,  which  were  never 
fulfilled. 

Thus  we  approach  the  days  of  the  Crimean  War,  which 
broke  up  the  general  peace  of  Europe,  which  had  lasted 
thirty  years. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    CRIMEAN    WAR. 

VERY  war  that  affects  Turkey  seems  like  an  annex  to 
the  Crusades.  Three  quarters  of  a  century  ago  it  was 
the  fashion  to  talk  much  of  the  folly  and  the  superstition  of 
the  Crusades.  Apart  from  their  religious  aspect  we  have 
learned  to  see  how  great  were  the  advantages  to  civilization 
and  learning  in  western  Europe  promoted  by  those  wars, 
and  most  sincerely  to  regret  that  no  subsequent  crusade 
followed  up  the  work  begun  by  Godfrey  de  Bouillon  and 
his  successful  crusaders. 

It  was  the  dream  of  Columbus  to  devote  all  the  wealth 
he  might  acquire  in  the  new  world  to  a  crusade  that  should 
complete  the  work  begun  four  centuries  before  his  day, 
and  which  four  hundred  years  after  is  still  incomplete.1  The 
Crusades  have  left  us  in  the  nineteenth  century  an  unsolved 
problem,  —  the  Eastern  Question.  Not  but  what  the  Turks 
are  a  fine  people,  but,  as  we  say  of  weeds,  they  are  flowers 
in  the  wrong  place ;  though  the  effete  or  savage  Christian 
nations  likely  to  succeed  them  are  far  from  being  their 
superiors  either  in  morality,  honor,  or  trust  in  a  Divine 
Providence. 

As  we  have  seen,  Russia,  ever  since  the  Turks  estab- 
lished themselves  in  Constantinople  has  aimed  to  be  con- 
sidered the  patron  and  protector  of  Greek  Christians.  For 

1  In  1606  the  baptism  of  Louis  XIII.  at  Fontainebleau  was  accom- 
panied by  strange  portents  in  the  sky,  interpreted  by  the  astrologers 
to  mean  that  Louis  would  receive  the  crown  of  Germany,  reconquer 
Europe  from  the  Turks,  and  overthrow  the  Ottoman  Empire.  See 
Edinburgh  Review,  June,  1893. 


IO4      RUSSIA  AND   TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

four  hundred  years  every  Russian  has  been  born  to  the 
hope  that  he  may  one  day  follow  the  footsteps  of  a  con- 
quering czar  through  a  certain  gate  into  Constantinople,  — 
a  gate  through  which  ancient  prophecy  has  said  that  the 
Russians  shall  pass  in  triumph  to  re-establish  Christian 
worship  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sophia.  It  has  been 
walled  up  by  one  of  the  sultans  in  consequence  of  this 
prophecy,  and  remains  walled  up  to  the  present  day. 

But  although  the  Russian  emperor  claims  to  be  the  polit- 
ical protector  of  Greek  Christians,  Greek  Christians  out  of 
Russia  are  by  no  means  willing  to  accept  him  as  their  eccle- 
siastical head.  Politically,  however,  there  have  been  times 
when  they  were  not  unwilling  to  welcome  him  as  their  pro- 
tector against  the  Turks,  leaving  the  religious  differences 
between  patriarch  and  autocrat  in  abeyance. 

The  sultan  of  Turkey  in  1851  was  Abdul  Medjid,  son  of 
Sultan  Mahmoud,  the  destroyer  of  the  Janissaries.  He  had 
succeeded  his  father  in  1841,  when  the  Eastern  Question, 
complicated  by  the  affairs  of  Egypt,  was  threatening  a  war  in 
Europe,  —  a  war  which  was  only  averted  by  the  pacific 
policy  of  Louis  Philippe  and  by  Lord  Palmerston's  skilful 
diplomacy. 

We  can  sincerely  sympathize  with  the  feeling  that  makes 
the  Holy  Places  dear  to  all  Christians,  —  those  "  places  where 
Christ's  holy  feet  have  trod ;  "  that  Jerusalem  which  in  a 
certain  sense  is  "  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth  "  now,  and 
will,  we  humbly  believe,  be  more  so  hereafter. 

The  holy  shrines  are  two,  —  the  Church  of  the  Nativity 
in  Bethlehem,  and  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at 
Jerusalem.  To  these  shrines  yearly  come  hosts  of  Greek, 
Latin,  and  Armenian  pilgrims,  and  at  the  holy  season  of 
Easter  such  quarrels  and  disputes  for  precedence  went  on 
among  the  pilgrims  (each  church  claiming  especial  privi- 
leges in  connection  with  the  holy  sites)  that  often  Turkish 
soldiers  had  to  interfere ;  and  once  there  was  a  disgraceful 
massacre,  the  pilgrims  fighting  each  other  until  the  pave- 
ments of  the  church  ran  blood. 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR. 


105 


In  1851  Louis  Napoleon  (then  prince-president)  made 
an  effort  to  have  the  privileges  of  the  Latins,  that  is,  the 
Roman  Catholics,  enlarged.  This  stirred  the  Greek  Chris- 
tians into  fury.  It  was  they  who  had  had  the  ascendency 
at  the  holy  shrines  since  1 740.  They  at  once  appealed  to 
their  great  champion  the  czar  of  Russia.  The  French 
ambassador  at  Constantinople  in  1851  was  the  Marquis  de 
la  Vallette,  a  man  of  charming  manners  and  of  great 
benignity,  who  had  for  his  wife  a  very  beautiful  American 
lady,  —  a  perfect  woman  of  the  world,  in  the  higher  sense 
of  that  much  desecrated  expression.  But  nothing  in  the 
career  of  M.  de  la  Vallette  would  have  led  any  one  to  sup- 
pose that  his  principles  of  religion  or  morality  were  higher 
than  those  of  Prince  Louis  Napoleon.  One  can  hardly 
imagine  that  either  of  them  had  one  particle  of  religious 
sentiment  connected  with  the  dispute  about  the  Holy 
Places.  The  great  question  was  whether  Latin  monks 
should  keep  the  key  of  the  great  door  of  the  chapel  in  the 
grotto  at  Bethlehem,  and  whether  in  the  chapel  above 
ground  they  might  hang  a  silver  star  with  the  arms  of 
France  emblazoned  on  it.  The  Greek  Christians  were 
willing  that  the  Latins  should  have  a  key  to  the  side  door, 
but  not  to  the  principal  entrance.  Such  was  the  puerile 
dispute  that  led  to  war  and  sorrow  and  suffering ;  and  its 
consequences  are  with  us  to  this  day.  The  quarrel  waxed 
so  hot  after  the  czar  was  brought  into  it  that  a  Russian 
army  was  held  in  readiness  to  enter  what  were  then  called 
the  Danubian  Provinces. 

The  dissensions  of  the  monks  about  their  keys  was  an 
entering-wedge  by  which  the  czar  hoped  to  carry  out  the 
intentions  ascribed  to  Peter  the  Great,  and  to  obtain  the 
object  of  desire  to  every  Russian,  namely,  controlling  influ- 
ence at  Constantinople,  if  not  its  complete  possession. 

Russia  without  Constantinople  has  no  practicable  outlet 
to  the  high  seas.  A  fleet  sent  down  the  Baltic  is  liable  to 
be  frozen  in  in  winter,  or  attacked  while  passing  through 
the  Sound,  Cattegat,  or  Skager  Rack.  A  fleet  launched  at 


I06      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Archangel  in  the  White  Sea  could  sail  only  in  summer,  and 
only  in  summer  return  home.  It  is  no  wonder  then  that 
every  Russian  covets  Constantinople.  When  Alexander  I. 
lost  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  it  by  helping  the  revolu- 
tionary Greeks,  he  said,  and  truly :  "  I  am  the  only  man  in 
Russia  who  would  not  risk  anything  on  earth  to  obtain 
possession  of  Constantinople." 

The  state  of  mind  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  between  1840 
and  the  breaking  out  of  the  Crimean  War  is  thus  described 
by  Mr.  Kinglake :  "  He  was  always  eager  to  come  forward 
as  an  ardent  and  even  ferocious  defender  of  the  Greek 
Christians  in  Turkey,  but  he  dreaded  interfering  with  Turkey 
when  the  opportunity  was  offered  him,  unless  he  could  get 
the  alliance  of  England."  He  had  sometimes  a  curious 
and  undiplomatic  frankness  in  dealing  with  trained  diploma- 
tists. One  night,  January  9,  1853  (nine  years  after  his  visit 
to  Windsor  Castle)  when  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour,  the  Eng- 
lish ambassador,  was  at  a  party  in  the  palace  of  the  Grand 
Duchess  Helena,  the  emperor  came  up  to  him  and  began 
talking  about  the  close  amity  that  should  exist  between 
England  and  Russia,  adding :  "  If  we  are  agreed  I  am 
without  anxiety  as  to  the  West  of  Europe,  but  as  to  Turkey 
that  country  is  in  a  critical  state,  and  may  give  us  a  good 
deal  of  trouble."  The  emperor  then  shook  hands  with  Sir 
Hamilton,  and  believed  that  he  had  closed  the  conversation  ; 
but  Sir  Hamilton,  with  his  hand  still  in  the  emperor's  grasp, 
said  :  "  Sire,  with  your  gracious  permission,  I  am  about  to 
take  a  liberty.  Would  your  Majesty  add  a  few  words  which 
might  calm  the  anxiety  in  England  regarding  your  Majesty's 
intentions  with  respect  to  Turkey  ? "  After  a  moment's 
hesitation,  the  emperor  added  :  "  The  affairs  of  Turkey  are 
in  a  very  disorganized  condition.  The  country  itself  seems 
to  be  falling  to  pieces.  The  fall  will  be  a  great  misfortune, 
and  it  is  very  important  that  England  and  Russia  should 
come  to  a  perfectly  good  understanding  on  these  affairs,  and 
that  neither  should  take  any  decisive  step  unless  the  other 
is  apprised,"  Then  he  went  on  :  "  Stay  !  We  have  on  our 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR. 


107 


hands  a  sick  man,  —  a  very  sick  man.  It  will  be,  I  tell  you 
frankly,  a  great  misfortune  if  one  of  these  days  he  should 
slip  away  from  us ;  especially  before  all  necessary  arrange- 
ments have  been  made.  But,  however,  this  is  not  the  time 
to  speak  to  you  upon  this  matter." 

A  few  days  later  the  czar  sent  for  Sir  Hamilton,  and 
set  before  him  in  more  detail  his  views  of  the  Eastern 
Question. 

He  protested  that  he  desired  no  more  territory  than  his 
empire  possessed.  The  time  had  gone  by,  he  said,  when 
Russia  had  anything  to  fear  from  Turkey ;  "  but  there  are," 
he  continued,  "  in  that  country  several  millions  of  Christians, 
whose  interests  I  am  called  upon  to  watch  over,  while  the 
right  of  doing  so  is  secured  to  me  by  treaty.  I  may  truly 
say  I  make  a  moderate  and  sparing  use  of  my  right,  and  I 
will  freely  confess  it  is  one  that  is  attended  with  obligations 
occasionally  very  inconvenient,  but  I  cannot  recede  from 
the  discharge  of  a  very  distinct  duty.  Our  religion,  as 
established  in  this  country,  came  to  us  from  the  East,  and 
there  are  feelings  as  well  as  obligations  which  must  not  be 
lost  sight  of.  Now  Turkey,  in  the  condition  I  have  described, 
has  by  degrees  fallen  into  such  a  state  of  decrepitude  that, 
as  I  told  you  the  other  night,  eager  as  we  all  are  for  the 
existence  of  the  man  (and  I  am  as  desirous  as  you  can  be 
for  the  continuance  of  his  life,  I  beg  you  to  believe),  he 
may  suddenly  die  upon  our  hands.  We  cannot  resuscitate 
what  is  dead ;  if  the  Turkish  Empire  falls  it  will  rise  no 
more.  I  put  it  to  you,  then,  whether  it  is  not  better  to  be 
prepared  for  such  a  contingency,  rather  than  to  incur  the 
chaos,  confusion,  and  uncertainty  of  a  European  war?" 

The  plan  the  czar  proposed  was  that  neither  he  nor 
England  should  take  Constantinople ;  that  Servia  and 
Bulgaria  should  become  autonomous  States,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Russia,  and  that  England  should  have  Egypt  and 
Candia. 

Russia  is  always  well  pleased  to  have  weak  States  on  her 
frontier.  She  waits  until  they  get  into  disputes  with  one 


IO8       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1XTH  CENTURY. 

another,  then  she  settles  their  disputes,  taking  for  her  pay  a 
portion  of  their  territory.  She  does  this  again  and  again 
until  the  remnant  left  appears  hardly  worth  saving,  and  then 
she  absorbs  the  whole. 

The  English  government  declined  the  bargain,  and  the 
matter  remained  secret  for  rather  more  than  a  year.  The 
czar  had  opened  the  subject  to  Prince  Metternich  before 
his  conversation  with  Sir  Hamilton,  and  the  old  Austrian 
diplomatist,  not  wishing  to  discuss  the  subject,  looked  full 
at  him,  saying :  "  The  sick  man  ?  Are  your  Majesty's 
remarks  addressed  to  his  doctor,  or  his  heir?" 

Meantime  the  little  body  of  Christians  who  live  in  the 
Black  Mountains  (Montenegro)  and  have  never  been  sub- 
dued by  the  Turks  were  attacked  by  a  Turkish  army  under 
the  celebrated  Hungarian  renegade,  Omar  Pasha.  The 
Emperor  Nicholas  was  anxious  to  intervene  on  behalf  of  the 
brave  and  primitive  Montenegrins,  but  Austria  forestalled 
him  by  representing  to  the  Porte  very  peremptorily  that  she 
would  not  calmly  see  the  independence  of  the  Montenegrins 
imperilled. 

The  sultan  greatly  surprised  both  the  czar  and  the 
emperor  of  Austria  by  at  once  withdrawing  Omar  Pasha 
and  his  army  from  besieging  the  mountain  stronghold  of 
the  Montenegrins,  and  this  prompt  submission  to  the  repre- 
sentations of  Austria  deprived  the  czar  of  that  pretext  for 
a  war  with  Turkey. 

But  the  Russian  army  lay  all  ready  on  the  Turkish 
frontier,  and  Nicholas  was  sincerely  desirous  of  hostilities. 
He  despatched  Prince  Mentzikoff  as  his  ambassador  to 
Constantinople,  a  man  more  celebrated  for  his  witty  sayings 
than  for  his  talent  for  diplomacy.  He  was  to  settle  the 
question  of  the  Holy  Places,  and  to  force  the  sultan  into 
making  a  secret  treaty  with  Russia,  by  which  Russia  should 
be  given  legal  power  over  the  Greek  patriarch  at  Constanti- 
nople and  be  confirmed  as  the  protector  of  Greek  Christians 
throughout  the  sultan's  dominions. 

The  English  ambassador  at  Constantinople  had  long  been 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  IOg 

Sir  Stratford  Canning  (nephew  of  the  great  George  Can- 
ning, minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  in  England  in  1822)  ;  the 
Turks  used  to  call  him  the  English  sultan,  so  great  was  his 
influence  at  the  Porte.  Part  —  indeed  the  chief  part  • —  of 
Prince  Mentzikoff's  mission  was  to  put  Sir  Stratford  Can- 
ning aside,  and  to  acquire  the  same  influence  for  Russia  with 
the  Porte  that  Sir  Stratford  had  exercised  for  so  many  years. 

Sir  Stratford  was  away  from  his  post  at  that  time  on  a 
visit  to  England.  The  English  government  made  him  Lord 
Stratford  de  Redclyffe  and  at  once  sent  him  back,  to  check- 
mate, if  possible,  the  Russian  diplomatist.  His  first  step 
was  to  conciliate  the  French  ambassador,  and  to  get  him 
to  join  in  making  concessions  about  the  quarrel  concerning 
the  Holy  Places,  which  would  take  that  grievance  out  of 
Prince  Mentzikoff's  hands.  Accordingly,  it  was  gravely 
and  formally  agreed  that  the  key  of  the  church  at  Beth- 
lehem, and  the  silver  star,  should  remain  where  they  were, 
but  should  confer  no  new  rights  upon  the  Latins,  or  Roman 
Catholics.  The  door-keeper  was  to  be  a  Greek  monk,  as 
before,  but  without  power  to  exclude  from  the  Holy  Place 
any  Roman  Catholic  worshipper.  The  Greeks  and  the 
Armenians  might  say  their  prayers  at  an  earlier  hour  than 
the  Latins  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Virgin,  —  the  Greeks  first, 
the  Armenians  after  them,  then  the  Latins,  each  having  an 
hour  for  their  service  ;  and  the  roof  of  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  was  to  be  repaired  at  the  cost  of  the  sultan, 
who  was  to  listen  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  Greek  patri- 
arch if  he  made  any  mistakes. 

Thus  the  controversy  of  the  Holy  Places  was  settled,  but 
there  remained  the  question  of  the  secret  treaty.  On  this 
point  Lord  Stratford  de  Redclyffe  triumphantly  defeated  his 
Russian  rival,  and  Prince  Mentzikoff  quitted  the  field  in  a 
state  of  great  exasperation.  By  this  time  England  and 
France  had  drawn  closely  together  in  alliance,  —  Napoleon 
III.  seizing  this  opportunity  to  show  how  sincere  he  was  in 
departing  from  the  policy  of  his  uncle,  and  in  being  friends 
with  England. 


IIO      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

Many  amusing  stories  are  told  about  Lord  Stratford  de 
Redclyffe, —  "the  great  Elchi,"  as  he  was  called  familiarly. 
He  was  a  man  of  very  great  talent,  with  a  brain,  as  some 
one  said,  "  like  an  elephant's  trunk,  equally  capable  of 
taking  up  the  largest  or  the  smallest  things."  The  way  in 
which  he  managed  the  Turks  was  amusing  enough.  He 
stood  their  friend  in  everything,  and  with  a  bitter  hatred 
he  hated  the  emperor  of  Russia,  but  he  was  not  going  to 
overlook  any  of  the  short-comings  of  his  Turkish  friends. 
Here  is  an  instance ;  one  of  his  attaches  tells  the  story : 

"  I  was  with  him  one  day  in  his  ten-oared  caique  upon  the 
Bosphorus  when  we  passed  a  large  garden  in  which  preparations 
were  being  made  for  building.  Lord  Stratford  told  me  to 
land  and  inquire  whose  it  was.  On  being  told  that  the  sultan 
was  about  building  a  new  summer  palace,  he  ordered  the  boat- 
men to  row  straight  to  where  the  sultan  was  living.  He  was 
announced  as  desiring  an  immediate  audience.  It  was  just  at 
the  opening  of  the  Crimean  War,  and  Abdul  Medjid  received 
him  with  smiles,  thinking  he  had  come  to  bring  important  news 
from  the  Danubian  Provinces.  But  the  great  Elchi,  who  had  a 
quick  temper,  burst  out  with,  *  His  Majesty  has  eight  palaces 
already.  Ask  him  would  he  spend  his  money,  scarcely  sufficient 
as  it  is  to  buy  bread  for  his  troops  in  the  field,  in  building  a 
ninth  palace  for  the  emperor  of  Russia  to  occupy  ?  —  for  no 
assistance  can  be  expected  from  the  allies  of  Turkey  if  they  see 
such  reckless  extravagance  going  on ! ' r 

Prince  Mentzikoffs  departure  from  Constantinople,  after 
having  taken  down  the  imperial  arms  over  the  Russian 
embassy,  was  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war  between 
Turkey  and  Russia.  England  and  France  were  united, 
whether  for  war  or  diplomacy.  The  next  move  had  to 
come  from  the  czar.  His  chief  minister  at  that  period  was 
Count  Nesselrode,  a  man  of  calm  good  sense,  who  had 
grown  gray  in  diplomacy  ;  but  he  was  not  able  to  appease 
his  master  when  he  learned  that  the  English  and  French 
fleets  had  united,  and  together  had  approached  the  Dar- 
danelles, casting  anchor  in  Besika  Bay,  which  was  as  near 
to  Constantinople  as  diplomacy  permitted.  The  czar  threat- 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  Ill 

ened  to  retaliate  by  letting  his  army  cross  the  Pruth  into 
the  Turkish  dependency  of  Moldavia. 

As  has  been  said,  the  Treaty  of  Unkiar-Skelessi  prohibited 
any  vessel  of  war  of  any  foreign  power  from  entering  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  either  by  the  Bosphorus,  on  which  Con- 
stantinople is  situated,  or  by  the  Dardanelles,  which  connects 
the  Sea  of  Marmora  with  the  ^Egean.  The  Bosphorus  is 
seventeen  miles  long  and  in  some  places  not  wider  than  a 
second-class  American  river.  Russia  had  built  the  mighty 
fortress  and  naval  station  of  Sebastopol  on  the  extreme 
southern  point  of  the  Crimea,  a  territory  she  had  wrenched 
from  Turkey  about  seventy-five  years  before.  But  her  great 
ships  lay  inactive  in  the  harbor  of  Sebastopol.  They  had 
no  exit  from  the  Black  Sea.  So  long  as  the  sultan  was  at 
peace  no  ship  of  war  could  pass  Constantinople.  If  Russia 
invaded  Moldavia  Turkey  would  no  longer  be  at  peace,  and 
the  English  and  French  fleets  might  pass  the  Dardanelles 
and  Bosphorus  and  enter  the  Black  Sea. 

Meantime  plenipotentiaries  of  the  Austrian,  Prussian, 
English,  and  French  governments  were  trying  to  patch  up  a 
peace  between  Turkey  and  the  angry  emperor  of  Russia : 
but  Nicholas,  inflamed  by  religious  zeal,  was  almost  beside 
himself. 

The  "note"  prepared  as  a  basis  of  reconciliation  was 
acceptable  to  neither  party,  and  moreover  a  strong  Moham- 
medan feeling  was  roused  in  Constantinople  against  the 
Infidel.  Placards,  urging  the  sultan  to  declare  war  against 
Russia,  were  posted  in  the  mosques,  and  the  condition  of 
things  was  so  stormy  that  fears  were  entertained  for  the 
safety  of  the  Christian  population.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, after  much  hesitation,  the  English  and  French 
ambassadors  ordered  their  respective  fleets  up  to  Constanti- 
nople. The  czar  at  once  retaliated.  His  fleet  sailed  out 
of  Sebastopol,  and  stood  over  to  Sinope,  a  town  upon  the 
Turkish  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  where  a  small  Turkish  fleet 
was  lying.  The  Russian  admiral  had  six  line -of- battle  ships, 
the  Turkish  admiral  had  no  three-deckers.  He  had,  how- 


112       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

ever,  seven  frigates,  a  sloop,  and  a  steamer,  and  was  the 
first  to  begin  the  engagement.  Every  one  of  the  Turkish 
ships  was  destroyed  (except  the  steamer),  with  nearly  all 
the  men  on  board  of  them.  Only  four  hundred  Turks  sur- 
vived, and  those  were  wounded.  This  was  the  opening  of 
the  Crimean  War,  —  a  war  apparently  without  any  heart- 
stirring  object;  a  war  that  might  have  been  averted  by 
diplomacy.  But  a  desire  for  war  seems  to  have  possessed 
that  generation.  Mr.  Kinglake,  whose  animosity  to  the 
emperor  of  the  French  is  conspicuous  throughout  his  able 
and  interesting  volumes,  seems  to  think  that  the  desire  of 
Napoleon  III.  for  the  English  alliance  egged  on  the  war. 
He  says  of  it :  — 

"  This  war  was  deadly.  It  brought,  so  to  say,  to  the  grave 
full  a  million  of  workmen  and  soldiers.  It  consumed  a  pitiless 
share  of  wealth.  It  shattered  the  framework  of  the  European 
system,  and  made  it  hard  for  any  nation  henceforth  to  be  safe 
except  by  its  sheer  strength." 

At  this  crisis  a  deputation  of  English  Quakers  waited  on 
the  czar  at  St.  Petersburg,  to  urge  upon  him  peace. 
Nicholas  received  them  in  a  manner  which  they  felt  to  be 
most  flattering,  and  which  made  them  hope  that  they  were 
the  world's  peace-makers ;  but  the  moment  they  departed 
he  turned  all  his  attention  to  war,  while  in  England  nothing 
could  exceed  the  warlike  enthusiasm.  As  the  queen  wrote 
to  her  uncle,  King  Leopold,  "  The  war  is  widely  popular." 

Twelve  thousand  men  were  at  once  sent  to  Malta,  and 
Lord  Raglan  (Lord  Fitzroy  Somerset,  a  Waterloo  hero)  was 
placed  in  command.  Lord  Raglan  had  been  second  at  the 
War  Office  while  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  commander- 
in-chief,  and  was  much  disappointed  when  Lord  Hardinge, 
instead  of  himself,  had  been  appointed  the  Duke's  succes- 
sor. Fifteen  thousand  men  were  to  follow  the  first  twelve 
thousand,  and  France  was  to  send  forty-five  thousand. 
Besides  these  a  splendid  fleet  was  fitted  out  to  carry  the 
war  into  the  Baltic,  and  placed  under  the  command  of  the 
dashing  but  eccentric  Admiral  Sir  Charles  Napier. 


LORD  RAGLAN. 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  \  13 

The  Russian  ambassador  left  London  on  Feb.  7,  1854; 
on  the  same  day  the  English  ambassador  was  recalled  from 
St.  Petersburg;  and  on  Feb.  21  England  put  forth  her 
declaration  of  war. 

Meantime  the  English  troops  were  beginning  to  embark 
at  Portsmouth,  and  along  the  southern  coast  of  England. 
They  were  in  a  state  of  wild  enthusiasm.  There  had  been 
no  war  with  any  civilized  nation  for  a  generation.  In  the  last 
great  war  they  had  conquered  the  French,  who  had  con- 
quered the  world ;  now  English  and  French  were  to  fight 
side  by  side,  and  emulate  each  other. 

The  queen,  writing  to  her  uncle  Leopold,  said  :  — 

"  The  last  battalion  of  the  Guards  (Scots  Fusiliers)  embarked 
to-day.  They  passed  through  the  courtyard  here  at  7  A.  M. 
We  were  on  the  balcony  to  see  them  pass.  The  morning  was 
fine,  the  sun  shining  over  the  towers  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
and  an  immense  crowd  collected  to  see  the  fine  men,  and  cheer- 
ing them  immensely  as  with  difficulty  they  marched  along. 
They  formed  in  line,  presented  arms,  and  then  cheered  us  very 
heartily,  and  went  off  cheering.  It  was  a  touching  and  beauti- 
ful sight.  Many  sorrowing  friends  were  there,  and  one  saw  the 
shake  of  many  a  hand.  My  best  wishes  and  prayers  will  be 
with  them  all." 

Again,  on  March  15,  1854,  when  going  down  to  Spithead 
to  see  the  fleet  that  was  assembled  there  to  sail  for  the 
Baltic,  the  queen  writes  in  anticipation  of  the  review :  "  It 
will  be  a  solemn  moment !  Many  a  heart  will  be  very 
heavy,  and  many  a  prayer,  including  our  own,  will  be  offered 
for  their  safety  and  glory." 

So  commenced  the  Crimean  War.  It  lasted  a  year  and 
a  half.  "  For  twelve  months,"  says  Kinglake,  "  it  raged. 
It  so  tried  the  strength,  so  measured  the  enduring  power  of 
the  nations  engaged  in  it,  that,  when  the  conflict  was  over 
their  relative  stations  in  Europe  were  changed,  and  they 
had  to  be  classed  afresh." 

The  war  was  undertaken  to  enforce,  as  it  were,  the  police 
regulations  of  Europe.  The  idea  on  which  these  police 

8 


Ii4       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

regulations  are  founded  is  that  there  are  five  Great  Powers, 
England,  France,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  (now  Ger- 
many). If  any  of  these  Great  Powers  should  wrong  a 
lesser  State,  and  that  wrong  also  tends  to  the  injury  of  any 
one  of  the  other  four  Great  Powers,  the  injured  Great 
Power  is  expected  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  little  power, 
and  to  fight  the  big  one  if  necessary. 

This  was  the  theory  on  which  the  Crimean  War  took 
place.  Russia  was  oppressing  Turkey  by  threatening  her 
with  war  unless  she  put  the  protectorate  over  twelve  millions 
of  Greek  Christians  in  her  dominions  in  Europe  into  the 
czar's  hands.  England  and  France  argued  that  this  would 
so  weaken  Turkey  (already  considered  by  Russia  "  a  very 
sick  man  ")  that  before  long  Russia  would  get  possession 
of  Constantinople,  and  become  very  formidable  to  the  other 
four  Great  Powers ;  therefore  it  would  be  best  to  cripple 
her  before  she  attained  additional  strength. 

The  fleet  that  the  queen  and  the  prince  consort  went 
down  to  review  at  Spithead  set  sail  under  the  command, 
as  has  been  said,  of  Admiral  Sir  Charles  Napier.1  He 
was  cousin  to  General  Sir  Charles  Napier,  the  hero  of 
Indian  warfare ;  also  cousin  to  Sir  William  Napier,  the 
historian  of  the  campaigns  in  the  Peninsula,  and  second 
cousin  to  Lord  Napier  of  Magdala.  He  had  all  the  dash, 
bravery,  and  natural  ability  of  these  distinguished  members 
of  his  family ;  but  he  had  been  at  sea  all  his  life,  had  had 
no  education  from  books,  was  uncouth  in  his  appearance, 
slightly  lame  from  a  wound  received  early  in  life,  and  was 
noted  among  his  brother  officers  for  being  a  sloven.  His 
opinions  in  politics  were  those  of  an  advanced  reformer, 
and  his  animadversions  were  dreaded  by  every  ministry  as 
soon  as  he  obtained  a  seat  in  Parliament.  His  professional 

1  When  Sir  Charles  was  elected  Member  of  Parliament  for  Mary- 
lebone,  he  applied  to  my  father  for  one  of  my  school  histories  of 
England ;  saying  he  had  never  read  an  English  history,  and  thought 
he  ought  to  know  something  on  the  subject  as  he  was  called  to  be  a 
legislator.  —  E.  W.  L. 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR. 

reputation  rested  largely  on  the  magnificent  services  he  had 
rendered  to  Maria  da  Gloria,  the  Queen  of  Portugal,  in 
1828.  For  offering  his  sword  to  a  foreign  power  without 
permission  from  his  government  he  was  dropped  from  the 
English  navy  list,  but  was  afterwards  restored  to  the  navy. 
In  1840  he  distinguished  himself  in  the  Levant,  where  he 
took  St.  Jean  d'Acre  from  the  Egyptians  under  Ibrahim 
Pasha. 

The  French  fleet  that  was  to  have  supported  that  of 
England  in  the  expedition  to  the  Baltic  was  not  ready; 
indeed  it  did  not  get  ready  till  hostilities  were  nearly  over ; 
and  the  naval  part  of  the  war  against  Russia  was  a  failure, 
to  the  deep  disappointment  of  England,  and  the  mortifica- 
tion of  Sir  Charles  Napier.  The  fleet  under  his  orders  was 
a  magnificent  one,  consisting  almost  entirely  of  screw-ships, 
carrying  two  thousand  guns,  and  fourteen  thousand  men. 
With  this  armament  he  sailed  for  the  Baltic,  carrying  with 
him  the  hopes  and  confidence  of  the  English  people.  The 
queen  and  prince,  in  the  little  yacht  "  Fairy,"  went  in  and 
out  among  his  monster  ships  at  Spithead,  and,  after  the 
whole  fleet  had  sailed  past,  the  queen  stood  waving  her 
handkerchief,  the  "  Fairy  "  remaining  motionless  as  if  those 
on  board  of  her  wished  to  linger  over  the  scene.1 

This  splendid  fleet  entered  the  Baltic,  and  there  did 
absolutely  nothing.  It  tried  to  take  Cronstadt,  which  was 
too  well  defended.  It  sustained  few  losses,  it  suffered  no 
defeat ;  it  was  simply  a  naval  illustration  of  the  old  saying, 

"  The  King  of  France  with  twenty  thousand  men 
Marched  up  the  hill,  and  then  —  marched  down  again." 

We  need  speak  of  it  no  more. 

To  tell  the  history  of  the  Danubian  Provinces  in  this 
place  would  interrupt  our  story.  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  lying  north  of  the  Danube,  had 
long  been  ruled  by  the  Turks  when  by  the  Treaty  of 
Adrianople  in  1829  they  were  put  partly  under  Russian 

1  Life  of  the  Prince  Consort. 


1 1 6    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

protection,  and  were  governed  by  their  own  princes,  called 
"  waiwodes,"  who  paid  tribute  and  owed  fealty  to  the  sultan 
their  suzerain.  The  high-road  from  Russia  into  Turkey 
proper  lies  through  these  provinces. 

Some  months  before  the  declaration  of  war  between 
Russia,  England,  and  Turkey,  the  Emperor  Nicholas  had 
assembled  a  large  army  on  the  banks  of  the  Pruth.  He 
did  this  on  learning  that  the  Turkish  government,  by  ad- 
vice of  Lord  Stratford  de  Redclyffe,  had  refused  to  sign  the 
agreement  which  had  been  almost  concluded,  by  which 
the  sultan  was  to  confirm  the  protectorate  claimed  by 
Russia  over  the  Greek  Christians  in  his  dominions.  At 
once  the  army  on  the  Pruth  was  marched  into  Wallachia. 

It  seems  desirable  to  have  a  clear  idea  of  the  provinces 
of  Turkey  at  that  period.  North  of  the  Danube  lay 
Wallachia.  South  of  the  Danube  lay  Bulgaria  and  Servia. 
Running  through  Bulgaria  were  the  Balkan  Mountains 
(Mount  Hsemus  in  the  days  of  the  old  Greeks)  which 
separated  Bulgaria  proper  from  Southern  Bulgaria  (other- 
wise called  Eastern  Roumelia)  ;  and  Roumelia  was  the  very 
heart  and  body  of  European  Turkey.  In  Northern  Bul- 
garia were  the  great  fortress  of  Silistria,  the  fortified  city  of 
Plevna,  the  entrenched  camp  of  Shumla,  and  the  port  of 
Varna.  Russia  cannot  approach  Constantinople  by  land 
without  crossing  Bulgaria  and  taking  one  or  more  of  these 
places.  This  is  why  the  Russian  government  at  the  present 
day  is  anxious  that  Bulgaria  shall  have  no  prince  who  is 
not  devoted  to  Russian  interests  and  subservient  to  the  will 
of  the  czar. 

The  Turkish  general- in- chief  in  1853  was  Omar  Pasha, 
a  Hungarian  renegade.  He  had  committed  some  small 
fault  during  his  early  youth,  and  had  fled  from  home  to 
escape  punishment.  He  had  crossed  the  Danube  and 
made  himself  a  Turk.  He  was  a  cold,  stern  man,  but  a 
great  general.  The  sub-officers  in  the  Turkish  army  are 
in  general  cowardly,  trifling,  and  corrupt,  but  the  common 
soldiers  are  brave  and  self-devoted,  —  admirable  material 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR. 


117 


for  an  army  if  only  their  officers  could  be  made  trust- 
worthy. 

In  the  month  of  March  1854,  Lord  Raglan  was  chosen 
to  command  the  English  forces,  and  Marshal  de  Saint- Arnaud 
to  command  those  of  the  French.  Saint- Arnaud  had  been 
the  man  who  so  skilfully  and  successfully  conducted  the 
prince-president's  coup  d'&tat  of  December  i,  1851, — 
about  two  years  and  a  half  before  the  breaking  out  of  the 
Crimean  War.  He  had  in  consequence  been  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  a  marshal  of  France,  and  was  intrusted,  though 
the  youngest  marshal  in  the  French  service,  with  the  com- 
mand of  his  imperial  master's  army  in  this  war. 

Mr.  Kinglake,  in  his  history  of  the  struggle  in  the  Crimea, 
says  of  him  :  — 

"  He  impersonated  with  singular  exactness  the  idea  which 
our  forefathers  had  in  their  minds  when  they  spoke  of  what 
they  called  '  a  Frenchman.'  He  was  bold,  gay,  restless,  and 
vain ;  but  beneath  the  mere  glitter  of  the  surface  there  was  a 
great  capacity  for  administrative  business,  and  a  more  than 
common  readiness  to  take  away  human  life." 

He  began  his  career  as  Jacques  Leroy.  He  ended  it  as 
the  Marshal  Achille  de  Saint- Arnaud,  having  had  divers  aliases 
during  the  interval.  In  1816  he  entered  the  French  army 
as  a  sub-lieutenant  in  the  Royal  Guard,  but  his  course  of 
life  was  so  dissolute  and  so  disreputable  that  he  was  soon 
dismissed,  and  was  obliged  to  keep  out  of  France  for  sev- 
eral years.  Part  of  this  time  he  spent  in  England,  and 
learned  to  speak  English  fluently,  as  well  as  several  other 
languages.  He  lived  apparently  by  all  kinds  of  shifts,  and 
his  course  of  life  was  not  improved.  At  one  time,  under 
the  name  of  Florival,  he  was  an  actor  in  one  of  the  second- 
rate  theatres  in  the  suburbs  of  Paris.  When  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1830  broke  out  he  was  thirty-three.  He  changed 
his  name,  again  entered  the  army  as  a  sub-lieutenant,  and 
gained  favor  with  his  superiors,  ingratiating  himself  in 
their  regard  by  various  little  services.  General  Bugeaud 


1 1 8       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTff  CENTURA. 

made  him  his  aide-de-camp,1  and  it  is  to  Saint-Arnaud's 
credit  that  when  arranging  the  details  of  the  coup  d'etat 
with  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  he  took  care  to  have  Marshal 
Bugeaud  sent  from  Paris  to  Lyons,  so  that  he  escaped 
the  imprisonment  and  the  indignities  heaped  on  the  other 
"  African  generals."  But  while  aide-de-camp  to  Bugeaud 
and  a  personal  favorite  with  that  general,  "again,"  says 
Kinglake,  "  the  cloud  passed  over  him."  That  is,  he  was 
again  dropped  from  the  service  "  for  conduct  unbecoming 
an  officer  and  a  gentleman." 

No  longer  eligible  to  re-enter  the  regular  army,  he  got  a 
sub-lieutenant's  commission  in  what  was  called  "  the  For- 
eign Legion,"  and  went  with  it  to  Algeria.  "  Every  man," 
he  says,  "  in  that  corps  boasted  of  his  vie  orageuse  ;  "  that 
is,  Saint-Arnaud  found  them  all  scamps  and  dare-devils  like 
himself.  He  had  however  re-entered  military  life  with  a 
determination  to  die  or  to  be  something  remarkable.  At 
the  memorable  siege  of  Constantine  in  1837  the  fortunes 
of  the  day  were  mainly  due  to  his  rash  courage.  When  all 
seemed  lost  after  a  great  explosion,  which  blew  hundreds 
of  Frenchmen  into  the  air,  Saint-Arnaud  rallied  the  foreign 
devils  of  his  corps  —  many  of  them  English,  Irish,  Ger- 
mans, and  Scandinavians  —  by  an  English  hurrah.  The  men 
caught  up  the  shout,  and,  cheering,  followed  their  leader. 

His  health  was  wretched.  Half  the  time  he  suffered 
bodily  agony,  but  nothing  quenched  his  spirit.  If  there 
was  a  deed  of  daring  to  be  done,  in  or  out  of  his  profes- 
sion, he  was  the  man  to  do  it,  and  it  was  often  accom- 
panied by  acrobatic  feats  which  he  must  have  learned  when 
Signer  Florival. 

In  1845  he  perpetrated  a  horrible  massacre  of  five  hun- 
dred Arabs  in  a  cave.  I  do  not  mean  that  massacre  which 
made  General  Pelissier  world-famous,  —  when  he  smoth- 
ered a  crowd  of  Arabs,  men,  women,  and  children,  at  Dahra ; 

1  Saint-Arnaud  was  with  him  at  Blaye,  and  was  one  of  the  wit- 
nesses to  the  declaration  of  the  Duchesse  de  Berry  concerning  her 
second  marriage. 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR, 

but  this  other  massacre  Saint- Arnaud  for  a  long  time 
kept  secret.  He  so  contrived  it  that  the  very  soldiers  who 
walled  up  the  openings  to  the  cave  did  not  know  that  there 
were  five  hundred  living  wretches  inside  it.  Saint-Arnaud 
could  himself  take  the  whole  credit  of  the  deed,  saying  with 
Coriolanus,  "Alone  I  did  it—  I  !  " 

After  Louis  Napoleon  became  president,  he  at  once 
meditated  how  he  should  make  himself  emperor,  and  Fleury, 
his  personal  friend  (the  only  one  of  the  inner  circle  that 
surrounded  him  who  was  really  true  to  him),  was  sent  into 
Algeria  to  select  a  military  man  fit  to  conduct  the  plan  of  a 
coup  d'etat.  He  found  Saint-Arnaud,  then  a  colonel  and 
brevet-general.  He  was  secret,  daring,  reckless,  able  in 
administration,  unscrupulous,  untroubled  by  political  prin- 
ciples, agreeable  and  intelligent  as  a  companion,  and  with 
no  character  to  compromise.  Fleury  brought  him  home, 
and  presented  him  to  the  prince-president,  who  as  a  first 
step  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  purpose  made  him  minis- 
ter of  war. 

We  know  the  result.  And  this  was  the  man  who  was  to 
be  associated  with  Lord  Raglan  as  his  colleague,  and 
intrusted  with  the  most  splendid  command  conferred  upon 
any  French  general  since  the  great  wars  of  Napoleon. 

Lord  Raglan  was  third  son  of  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  a 
line  of  dukes  legitimately  descended  from  a  morganatic 
marriage  made  by  a  son  of  Edward  III.  He  was  already 
known  in  history  as  Lord  Fitzroy  Somerset,  aide-de-camp, 
secretary,  and  nephew  by  marriage  to  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton. He  was  for  forty  years  so  attached  to  the  duke's  per- 
son that  he  seemed  like  the  very  shadow  of  that  great  man. 
He  had  lost  an  arm  at  Waterloo  while  carrying  orders  for 
Wellington  past  La  Haye  Sainte.  His  name  and  his  honor 
were  unsullied.  His  life  had  been  woven  like  a  thread  into 
his  country's  history.  Wellington  had  been  probably  more 
closely  intimate  with  him  than  with  any  other  man  living. 
He  was  a  man  of  simple  habits,  hating  show,  fuss,  or  parade. 
Indeed  he  did  not  like  public  demonstrations  of  enthusiasm 


120       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

even  for  his  soldiers.  He  would  have  wished  to  start  off 
with  them  to  the  East,  and  there  serve  his  queen  and  do 
his  duty.  He  was  sixty-six  years  old,  but  fresh,  active,  and 
upright,  —  a  strange  contrast  in  all  things  to  the  inexpe- 
rienced French  commander-in-chief  with  whom  he  was 
linked,  and  whom  it  was  his  almost  painful  endeavor  to 
treat  on  all  occasions  with  distinguished  consideration. 

On  April  n,  1854,  Lord  Raglan  and  the  queen's  cousin, 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  commander  of  a  division  of  the 
English  army,  attended  a  review  of  thirty  thousand  French 
troops  in  the  Champ  de  Mars,  where,  almost  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  France,  French  troops  cheered  for 
England.  The  emperor  had  known  Lord  Fitzroy  Somerset 
in  London.  Indeed  it  was  Lord  Fitzroy  who  had  intro- 
duced him  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  at  Apsley  House 
during  his  exile. 

On  April  13  Lord  Raglan  had  a  long  and  confidential 
private  interview  with  the  emperor,  and  then  was  taken 
into  an  outer  room  where  he  found  King  Jerome,  the  Duke 
of  Cambridge,  Marshal  Vaillant  (then  minister  of  war), 
Lord  de  Ros,  and  Marshal  de  Saint-Arnaud. 

What  a  strange  conjunction  !  —  the  brother  of  the  great 
Napoleon,  his  nephew  and  successor,  the  grandson  of 
George  III.,  the  nephew  and  disciple  of  Wellington,  Lord 
de  Ros,  bearer  of  the  oldest  title  in  England,  Vaillant 
the  oldest  marshal  in  France,  and  —  Marshal  de  Saint- 
Arnaud,  a  man  twice  dismissed  from  the  French  service, 
and  who  had  not  even  a  legal  right  to  his  name. 

After  this  interview  Lord  Raglan  and  the  Duke  of  Cam- 
bridge hurried  forward  to  join  their  troops,  who  were 
encamped  at  Gallipoli  upon  the  shore  of  the  Dardanelles, 
opposite  the  old  camping-ground  of  the  Greeks  during  the 
siege  of  Troy. 

Gallipoli  was  a  dull,  sad  little  town;  decay  and  dirt 
were  everywhere,  but  the  place  changed  suddenly  as  soon 
as  the  fleet  of  transports  arrived.  "  Trumpet-calls,  shout- 
ing, and  bustle  succeeded  the  death-like  repose  of  the 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR.  121 

broken-down  little  city.  A  camp  was  soon  pitched.  Things 
shook  into  their  places,"  says  an  eye-witness.  "  Drill 
began,  and  marching  out,"  to  bring  the  soldiers  into  a  proper 
state  of  training.  The  march  past  on  parade  was  soon  as 
good  as  at  Aldershot.  Had  Nicholas  been  there  he  might 
have  said,  as  his  son  did  afterward  to  the  German  crown 
prince,  while  witnessing  a  review  at  Windsor :  "  They  are 
the  finest  soldiers  in  the  world.  You  and  I  may  thank  our 
stars  there  are  so  few  of  them." 

While  the  armies  lay  at  Gallipoli  waiting  the  arrival 
of  military  stores,  especially  the  means  of  land  trans- 
portation, which  would  enable  them  to  push  forward, 
Lord  Raglan's  patience  and  courtesy  were  not  a  little  tried 
by  Marshal  de  Saint- Arnaud's  changes  of  mind.  "  In  the 
dead  of  night  or  in  the  early  dawn  he  would  send  word 
to  his  colleague  that  he  proposed  to  make  changes  that 
would  affect  the  whole  plan  of  campaign,  or  alter  the  whole 
structure  of  the  armies.  With  bland  politeness  Lord  Raglan 
would  convince  him,  or  checkmate  him,  when  Saint-Arnaud, 
with  irrepressible  buoyancy  and  good-humor,  would  submit, 
and  all  would  be  smooth  again." 

When  the  army  of  the  czar  had  posted  itself  in  Wal- 
lachia,  on  the  northern  or  left  bank  of  the  Danube,  Omar 
Pasha  had  massed  his  troops  in  Bulgaria  on  the  opposite 
bank.  The  czar  was  not  willing  that  his  Russians  should 
cross  into  Turkey  Proper  while  negotiations  were  pending, 
and  Wallachia  was  (at  least  nominally)  Russian  ground  ;  but 
inasmuch  as  it  still  owed  to  the  sultan  tribute  and  alle- 
giance, Omar  was  continually  sending  troops  across  the 
Danube  and  harassing  the  enemy  by  small  surprises.  At 
last  the  Russian  army  crossed  the  river  and  laid  siege  to 
the  great  fortress  of  Silistria.  This  was  precisely  what 
Omar  Pasha  wanted.  He  desired  they  should  waste  their 
time  and  strength  upon  stone  walls  which  he  knew  would 
hold  out  against  them. 

The  siege  of  Silistria  was  going  on  under  the  old  Russian 
general  Paskievitch,  so  successful  in  Persia,  in  Poland,  and 


122      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XI XT"  CENTURY. 

in  the  Caucasus  nearly  thirty  years  before  ;  but  Omar  Pasha 
did  not  make  any  energetic  attempt  to  relieve  the  garrison, 
feeling  assured  that  when  protected  by  fortifications  Turkish 
troops  were  well-nigh  invincible.  The  allied  generals,  how- 
ever, had  misgivings  on  the  subject.  Lord  Raglan  had  no 
great  faith  in  Turks,  and  if  the  Danubian  fortress  were  to 
fall  while  the  French  and  English  armies  lingered  at  Galli- 
poli,  he  felt  that  they  and  their  commanders  would  be 
disgraced.  They  could  not  go  anywhere  by  land  for  want 
of  the  means  of  transportation,  but  there  was  an  English 
fleet  and  a  French  fleet  at  hand,  and  in  these  they 
embarked,  sailed  through  the  Bosphorus,  passed  Constan- 
tinople, entered  the  Black  Sea,  and  landed  at  Varna,  on 
the  shores  of  Bulgaria.  There  they  were  near  enough  to 
Silistria  to  hear  the  roar  of  the  great  guns  at  night  with  the 
ear  to  the  ground,  and  near  enough  to  Omar  Pasha's  head- 
quarters to  reach  them  in  a  long  day's  ride. 

Silistria  was  immensely  strong  as  a  fortress,  but  it  had  a 
very  small  garrison  for  so  large  a  place.  It  had  also  an 
indifferent  Turkish  commander ;  but  two  young  English 
officers  from  India,  named  Nasmyth  and  Butler,  had 
thrown  themselves  into  the  place,  animated  the  Turks,  who 
soon  adored  them,  bullied  the  Turkish  commander  into 
something  like  courage,  and  successfully  resisted  every 
effort  of  Paskievitch  and  his  large  army  to  take  the  town. 
Poor  Butler  was  mortally  wounded  during  the  siege.  He 
and  Nasmyth  were  joined  in  the  course  of  it  by  five  other 
English  officers.  One  night  at  Varna  the  usual  cannonade 
from  Silistria  was  listened  for  by  the  French  and  English 
troops  recently  landed.  It  was  very  heavy.  The  next  night 
the  allies  heard  none.  Had  the  place  then  fallen  ?  On 
the  contrary  the  siege  was  raised,  and  Paskievitch  had 
retreated  across  the  Danube.  Thither  a  party  of  Turkish 
troops,  led  by  Englishmen,  followed  him,  and  obtained 
signal  advantages  at  a  post  on  the  Danube  called  Giurgievo. 

This  roused  the  czar  to  fury.  "  I  can  understand  Ole- 
nitza,"  he  cried  (Olenitza  was  a  battle  won  by  Omar  Pasha)  ; 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  12$ 

11 1  can  even  understand  that  Omar  should  have  been  able 
to  hold  out  against  me  on  the  lines  of  Kalafat;  I  can 
understand  Silistria,  —  the  strongest  may  fail  in  a  siege,  and 
Paskievitch  and  his  second  in  command  were  both 
wounded ;  but  —  but  —  but  —  that  Turks,  led  on  by  a 
general  of  Sepoys  and  six  or  seven  English  boys,  —  that 
they  should  dare  to  cross  the  Danube  in  the  face  of  my 
troops,  that,  daring  to  attempt  it,  they  should  do  it,  and 
hold  fast  their  ground,  that  my  troops  should  give  way 
before  them,  and  that  this,  this  should  be  the  last  act  of 
a  campaign  which  is  ending  with  the  abandonment  of  the 
principalities  and  the  retreat  of  my  whole  army  !  —  Heaven 
lays  upon  me  more  than  I  can  bear  !  " 

The  Russian  army  having  retreated,  the  English,  French, 
and  Turkish  allied  armies  found  no  enemy  in  their  front,  and 
had  to  determine  on  a  new  point  of  attack  in  southern 
Russia. 

Meanwhile  the  allied  generals,  Lord  Raglan  and  Marshal 
Saint- Arnaud  with  their  staffs,  started  out  one  hot  summer 
morning  to  ride  over  to  the  Turkish  camp  at  Shumla,  and 
consult  with  Omar  Pasha. 

"  Lord  Raglan,"  says  a  civilian  who  was  with  the  army  at 
this  stage  of  the  war, l  "  having  served  on  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington's staff  in  the  Peninsula  and  at  Waterloo,  when 
feelings  were  rife  in  the  British  army  not  over  conducive  to 
harmony  with  the  French,  thought  he  could  not  do  too 
much  to  show  that  no  such  antipathies  prevailed  now. 
Marshal  Saint- Arnaud,  whatever  other  merits  he  may  have 
possessed,  was  certainly  rather  wanting  in  the  chivalrous 
feeling  which  ought  to  have  prevented  his  taking  an  unfair 
advantage  of  his  colleague's  cordial  courtesy.  Later  on 
this  peculiar  feature  of  their  intercourse  was  of  serious 
importance,  as  it  could  not  fail  to  affect  their  joint  opera- 
tions, to  the  prejudice  of  the  British  army,  but  in  this 
instance  no  great  harm  was  done  by  it,  and  a  little  amuse- 
ment at  the  good  and  gallant  Lord  Raglan's  expense  for 

1  Laurence  Oliphant,  in  Blackwood's  Magazine. 


124      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

letting  himself  be  jockeyed,  was  the  only  result.  Shumla  is 
fifty  miles  from  Varna,  and  in  order  to  ride  the  distance 
more  comfortably  in  one  day,  Lord  Raglan  proposed  to 
Marshal  Saint- Arnaud  that  they  should  not  pay  their  visit 
in  uniform,  as  Omar  Pasha  would  doubtless  receive  them 
equally  well  if  they  appeared  in  easy-fitting  plain  clothes. 
The  French  marshal  made  no  objection,  and  he  and  his 
staff  started  in  wide-awake  hats,  and  shooting  jackets  with 
gold-laced  uniform  trousers  under  them.  Lord  Raglan 
and  his  suite  were  similarly  attired,  but  with  plain  overalls. 
When  the  cavalcade  was  approaching  Shumla,  orderlies 
brought  tin  boxes  to  the  marshal  and  his  staff,  who  halted 
for  a  few  minutes,  and  proceeded  to  unpack  cocked  hats 
and  feathers,  laced  jackets,  swords,  stars,  crosses,  and 
medals,  all  of  which  they  donned  with  the  greatest  com- 
placency, while  the  English  general  and  his  staff,  helpless 
in  their  sober  mufti,  looked  on  with  astonishment.  At  the 
gate  of  the  town  the  Turkish  guard  turned  out  and  pre- 
sented arms  to  the  French  officers.  It  turned  in  when  the 
English  officers  rode  up  to  the  gate.  Omar  Pasha  had  the 
good  taste  to  receive  the  two  commanders-in-chief  exactly 
alike,  and  to  tell  Lord  Raglan  he  was  very  glad  to  see  him 
in  plain  clothes,  which  he  begged  to  be  allowed  to  treat  as 
an  intimation  that  he  considered  him  a  friend.  The  Eng- 
lish general,  with  his  noble  simplicity  of  character,  merely 
replied  that  it  was  a  long  day's  ride,  and  that  he  had  felt 
sure  Omar  Pasha  would  not  object  to  his  coming  in  the 
most  comfortable  dress.  On  this  occasion  the  Grand  Cross 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor  was  formally  promised  by  the 
marshal  to  Omar  Pasha,  while  Lord  Raglan  in  his  turn 
announced  that  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Bath  would  be 
conferred  on  him.  The  sultan  had  already  been  invested 
with  the  Garter,  and  much  surprise  and  curiosity  were 
evinced  by  the  Turks,  who  declared  they  had  never  heard 
of  a  Bath  being  used  for  anything  but  cleanliness,  nor  of 
a  stocking  being  kept  up  by  a  gold-embroidered  garter  as  a 
mark  of  distinction.  *  Mashallah  ! '  they  exclaimed,  '  the 
English  are  the  fathers  of  funny  freaks  ! '  " 


\ 


MARSHAL  SAINT-ARNAUD. 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR. 


125 


In  spite  of  the  beauty  of  the  country  around  Varna,  and 
the  excellent  sport,  the  armies  became  very  desirous  to 
move  elsewhere.  Ague,  cholera,  and  dysentery  broke  out, 
and  the  troops  gladly  heard  the  trumpet-call  that  summoned 
them  to  fold  their  tents  and  march  away. 

And  yet  the  war  might  have  been  ended  by  diplomacy, 
after  the  cause  of  war  was  removed  by  the  retreat  of  the 
Russian  army  from  the  principalities,  but  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  had  his  policy  to  carry  out,  and  England  was 
beside  herself  with  a  passion  for  war,  and  a  craving  for 
adventure. 

Immediately  on  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  raising  of  the 
siege  of  Silistria  and  the  retreat  of  the  Russian  army, 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  then  war  minister  of  England, 
proposed  that  the  allied  armies  should  go  and  attack 
Sebastopol. 

Sebastopol,  as  every  one  knows  now,  stands  at  the  south- 
ern extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  the  Crimea,  and  is  a  port 
on  the  Black  Sea.  The  Emperor  Nicholas  had  made  it  a 
great  naval  station.  He  had  built  there  an  immense  arsenal, 
and  had  filled  the  place  with  stores  and  munitions  of  war, 
in  case  of  needing  them  in  any  advance  into  the  Turkish 
territory,  because  they  could  thence  be  conveyed  to  almost 
any  point  by  sea.  It  was  of  immense  strength,  especially 
in  its  outworks,  and  the  Russian  fleet,  which  had  destroyed 
that  of  the  Turks  at  Sinope,  lay  under  its  guns.  The  Duke 
of  Newcastle  prepared  his  instructions  for  Lord  Raglan  to 
make  this  important  movement,  in  fact  to  open  the  second 
campaign  of  the  war,  and  he  read  this  despatch  to  his  col- 
leagues after  a  dinner  at  Richmond.  None  of  them 
objected ;  so  little  was  known  of  the  Crimea,  or  of  Sebas- 
topol, that  there  were  no  grounds  for  objection.  No  one 
dissented  from  his  views.  The  despatch  was  forwarded  to 
Lord  Raglan.  It  was  very  peremptory,  leaving  him  no  dis- 
cretion, and  it  was  backed  by  similar  orders  to  Saint- 
Arnaud  from  his  emperor. 

There  was  not  an  officer  in  high  command  in  the  armies 


126       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

at  Varna  who  did  not  disapprove  the  project.  Lord  Raglan 
was  opposed  to  it,  as  also  were  the  chief  engineer  officer 
of  the  expedition,  his  fellow  in  the  councils  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  the  English  admiral,  and  vice-admiral,  and 
Saint-Arnaud.  But  the  latter  was  at  the  moment  ill, 
worried,  and  dispirited.  He  shook  off  all  responsibility, 
and  said  that  he  should  follow  the  lead  of  the  English 
commander. 

Neither  the  French  nor  English  had  any  certain  informa- 
tion as  to  the  state  of  the  defences  or  the  strength  of  the 
garrison  at  Sebastopol.  Some  said  that  it  contained  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  some  seventy  thousand, 
some  seventeen  thousand.  Lord  Raglan  could  obtain  no 
clear  intelligence.  But  the  despatch  from  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  was,  as  I  said,  very  peremptory.  It  nettled  the 
old  soldier.  He  determined  to  yield  his  own  military 
judgment,  and  to  obey  orders. 

"  I  cannot  help  seeing,"  wrote  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  in  a 
letter  of  reply  to  one  from  Lord  Raglan,  "  I  cannot  help  seeing 
through  the  calm  and  noble  tone  of  your  announcement  of  the 
decision  to  attack  Sebastopol,  that  it  has  been  taken  in  order  to 
meet  the  views  and  desires  of  government,  and  not  in  entire 
accordance  with  your  own  opinions.  God  grant  that  success 
may  reward  you,  and  justify  us  !  " 

It  was,  however,  imperatively  necessary  to  remove  the 
armies  from  Varna  as  speedily  as  possible.  The  French 
had  brought  cholera  with  them  to  the  Dardanelles.  It  first 
showed  itself  at  Gallipoli,  and  now  in  the  swamps  at  Varna 
it  grew  terrible.  General  Canrobert's  division  of  the  French 
army,  which  was  marched  into  the  low  country  round  the 
mouths  of  the  Danube,  was  decimated  by  it.  In  one  day's 
march,  and  in  the  space  of  a  few  hours,  hundreds  of  men 
sometimes  dropped  down  in  the  sudden  agonies  of  the  dis- 
ease ;  and  out  ot  one  battalion  it  was  said  that,  besides  the 
dead,  there  were  five  hundred  sick  carried  along  in  wagons. 
By  the  middle  of  August  out  of  three  French  divisions  ten 
thousand  men  lay  dead  or  ill  from  cholera.  The  English 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  I2/ 

admiral  ran  his  ships  out  to  sea,  hoping  that  in  untainted 
air  they  might  escape  infection,  but  the  disease  attacked 
the  sailors  with  especial  virulence.  Then  was  shown  the 
feeling  and  humanity  of  British  officers,  and  the  childlike 
trust  felt  in  them  by  their  men.  "Partly  by  cheering 
words,"  says  an  eye  witness,  "  and  partly  by  wild  remedies, 
invented  in  despair  of  all  regular  medical  aid,  the  officers 
really  did  sometimes  succeed  in  righting  the  disease,  or  made 
the  men  think  they  did." 

The  generals  at  last  could  not  but  feel  that  to  go  to  the 
Crimea  was  better  than  "  to  linger  among  the  atmospheric 
poisons  of  the  Bulgarian  coast ;  besides  which  they  knew  that 
bitter  would  be  the  disappointment  of  the  people  of  Eng- 
land to  see  the  army  sent  back  to  Malta,  and  forced  to  give 
up  the  conflict  for  the  bare  reason  that  some  of  the  men 
were  in  hospital,  and  that  the  rest,  without  being  ill,  were 
miserably  weak." 

On  August  24,  1854,  the  operation  of  embarking  the 
allied  armies  began.  The  English  embarked  sixty  pieces 
of  field-artillery  with  their  horses  and  equipments,  twenty 
thousand  infantry,  and  one  thousand  cavalry.  But  embark- 
ing cavalry  horses  is  a  difficult  and  tedious  business.  It 
cannot  be  done  in  a  rough  sea,  and  it  was  some  days  before 
the  English  men  and  horses  were  on  board  ship,  without, 
however,  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  It  had  been  intended 
that  in  order  to  make  the  descent  on  the  Crimea  a  surprise 
to  the  Russians,  the  allied  armies  should  get  there  as  quickly 
as  possible  by  means  of  steam,  but  the  French  resources  in 
steam  were  not  equal  to  the  emergency,  and  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  expedition  would  be  clogged  by  slow-sailing 
transports. 

On  the  5th  of  September  Marshal  Saint- Arnaud  decided 
to  set  sail  with  such  ships  as  he  had  ready,  leaving  the 
English  to  follow  with  the  transports  as  soon  as  their  horses 
could  be  got  on  board.  The  French  army  had  no  cavalry. 

The  yth  of  September,  when  the  fleet  sailed  out  of  Baljik 
Bay,  was  a  lovely  morning.  Moonlight  was  still  floating  on 


128       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

the  waters,  when  in  the  east  appeared  the  dawn.  The 
French  went  out  of  harbor  quickly.  Their  transports,  which 
were  small,  seemed  a  swarm.  The  English  followed  in  five 
columns  of  thirty  vessels  each,  and  then  —  guard  over  all 
—  sailed  the  English  war  fleet,  prepared  to  protect  the  rest 
in  case  the  enemy  had  news  of  their  expedition,  and  his 
fleet  should  sail  out  of  Sebastopol  to  attack  them. 

"  The  Black  Sea,"  says  Mr.  Kinglake,  "  is  a  far  better 
name  than  the  Euxine.  It  is  a  Black  Sea,  and  no  scientific 
man  has  been  able  to  account  for  the  difference  between 
its  climate  and  that  of  the  balmy,  fertile  shores  that  sur- 
round it." 

Marshal  Saint- Arnaud,  who  had  sailed  off  with  the  French 
war  vessels,  without  waiting  to  consult  Lord  Raglan,  sailed 
on  day  after  day  into  worse  and  worse  weather,  till  at  last, 
alarmed  by  his  isolation,  he  decided  to  sail  back  again  to 
Baljik  Bay  and  try  to  rejoin  the  English  and  his  own  forces. 
He  met  with  Lord  Raglan  the  day  after  the  English  fleet 
left  the  Bulgarian  harbor,  and  thenceforward  there  occurred 
no  more  ebullitions  of  petulance,  nor  did  Marshal  Saint- 
Arnaud  show  any  more  tendency  to  break  away  from  his 
colleague. 

That  night  when  the  French  generals  were  informed 
where  the  expedition  was  going,  a  number  of  them  signed 
a  paper  setting  forth  the  difficulties  that  they  foresaw  in 
landing  at  all  in  the  Crimea,  and  in  short  virtually  protest- 
ing against  carrying  out  the  scheme.  Saint-Arnaud  was 
very  ill  at  the  time,  —  unable  to  bear  discussion.  He  said 
he  would  adopt  the  decision  of  Lord  Raglan.  It  may  be 
right  to  say  here  that  General  Trochu  (who  was  afterwards 
commander  of  Paris  during  the  siege  in  1870)  had  been 
placed  with  Saint-Arnaud  as  head  of  his  staff,  and  his  con- 
fidential adviser.  He  wholly  disapproved  of  the  Crimean 
project,  and  was  sent  by  Saint-Arnaud  to  confer  with  Lord 
Raglan.  Lord  Raglan  quietly  put  aside  the  paper  signed 
by  the  French  generals,  without  inviting  discussion.  He  was 
a  real  head,  and  things  fell  at  once  into  obedience  to  him. 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR.  1 29 

On  Sept.  9  the  fleet  was  off  the  coast  of  the  Crimea,  and 
on  the  morning  of  the  loth,  a  fair,  bright  Sunday  morning 
with  the  bells  ashore  ringing  for  church,  Lord  Raglan  first 
saw  the  forts,  and  the  ships,  and  the  gayly  cupolaed  town, 
that  was  to  become  so  famous  in  history.  Rounding  a  cape 
he  next  saw  two  old  Genoese  forts  guarding  the  entrance  to 
that  arm  of  the  sea  which  divides  Sebastopol  into  two  parts. 
In  the  distance  he  saw  the  heights,  the  fatal  heights  to  so 
many  who  then  looked  on  them  for  the  first  time,  fatal  to 
both  commanders,  —  the  heights  of  Sebastopol. 

Having  reconnoitred  the  unknown  coast  himself,  for  the 
whole  country  was  as  strange  to  French  and  English  as  if 
they  had  been  the  Argonauts,  Lord  Raglan  decided  to  dis- 
embark to  the  west  of  Sebastopol.  He  fixed  on  a  broad 
sandy  bit  of  beach  near  the  bright  little  village  of  Eupatoria. 
By  this  time  Marshal  Saint- Arnaud  had  thrown  off  his  attack 
of  illness,  and  was  himself  again. 

The  Tartars  of  the  country  proved  to  be  very  willing  to 
open  a  provision  market  for  the  supply  of  the  allied  troops. 
A  few  Russian  coins  were  obtained  from  some  English 
travellers,  who  had  not  (like  the  government)  forgotten  that 
English  sovereigns  will  not  pass  current  among  the  peasants 
of  Scythia.  In  two  days  the  men  were  landed,  but  it  took 
four  more  to  get  ashore  the  horses.  English  horses  are 
not,  as  a  rule,  so  sensible,  obedient,  and  tractable  as  Ameri- 
can horses.  In  five  days  all  were  on  shore,  but  alas  !  —  the 
cholera  came  with  them,  and  the  first  duty  of  the  soldiers 
was  to  dig  graves. 

The  Turks  provided  for  their  own  comfort  much  sooner 
than  the  French  and  English,  and  the  English  and  French 
officers,  who  had  no  tents  with  them,  were  glad  to  find  some 
shelter  in  those  of  the  Turkish  officers. 

Soon  the  head-men  of  the  villages  began  to  come  in,  and 
they  seemed  not  unfriendly  to  the  invaders.  In  the  villages, 
strange  as  they  appeared  in  most  respects  to  English  eyes, 
officers  found  here  and  there  houses  with  pianos,  music- 
books,  and  other  signs  of  refinement.  One  main  want  of 

9 


I3O      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

the  country  was  water,  but  the  English  quartermaster- 
general  caused  wells  at  once  to  be  sunk.  The  army  was 
accompanied  by  no  camp  followers  to  make  mischief  among 
the  population,  and  very  soon  friendly  feelings  were  estab- 
lished between  the  English  soldiers  and  the  Tartar  peas- 
antry, the  soldiers  helping  the  women  in  their  household 
labors.  The  Rifles,  an  English  crack  regiment,  were  their 
favorites,  and,  when  the  soldiers  came  to  understand  some- 
thing of  the  speech  of  the  peasantry,  it  was  found  that  the 
women  designated  the  Rifles  as  "  heroes  stronger  than 
lions,  and  quieter  than  lambs."  Alas  !  it  was  as  lions,  not 
as  lambs,  that  the  Zouaves  subsequently  made  themselves 
known  to  them. 

The  army  landed  in  the  Crimea  was  twenty- seven  thousand 
English,  thirty-seven  thousand  French  and  Turks,  —  in  all, 
sixty- four  thousand  men.  On  the  morning  of  Sept.  19  the 
armies  began  their  march  southward.  We  need  not  attempt 
any  description  of  that  march.  The  movement  of  armies  is 
interesting  only  if  one  takes  a  good  map  of  the  country  on 
which  to  study  them ;  abridged,  the  narrative  becomes  an 
unintelligible  mass  of  dry  details.  And  the  same  may  be 
said  of  battles. 

The  first  river  crossed  was  called  the  Bulganak,  and  here 
it  was  that  the  Russian  soldiers  first  appeared.  The  next 
morning  they  were  found  in  force  in  an  entrenched  camp, 
prepared  to  dispute  the  passage  of  the  river  Alma. 

Prince  Mentzikoff  (he  who  had  precipitated  the  war 
when  ambassador  at  Constantinople)  was  in  command  of 
the  Russian  forces.  "He  was,"  says  Mr.  Kinglake,  "a 
wayward,  presumptuous  man,  and  his  bearing  toward  the 
generals  under  his  command  was  of  such  a  kind  that  he 
did  not,  or  could  not,  strengthen  himself  by  the  counsel  of 
men  abler  than  himself.  In  time  past  he  had  been  mutilated 
by  a  round  shot  from  a  Turkish  gun.  He  bore  hatred 
against  the  Ottoman  race.  He  bore  hatred  against  their 
faith.  He  had  opened  his  mission  at  .the  Porte  with  in- 
sults, he  had  closed  it  with  threats,  and  now  he  was  out  on 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  \$\ 

a  hillside  with  horse  and  foot,  empowered  to  take  full 
vengeance  on  his  enemies,  Christian  and  infidel." 

It  was  Sept.  20,  1854,  that  the  battle  of  the  Alma  was 
fought.  The  two  allied  commanders  went  alone  together 
early  in  the  morning  to  a  hill,  and  surveyed  the  field  of  ac- 
tion. Prince  George  of  England  (the  Duke  of  Cambridge) 
commanded  an  English  division ;  Prince  Napoleon  (son  of 
King  Jerome)  commanded  a  French  one. 

"  The  whole  allied  armies,  hiding  nothing  of  their  splen- 
dor, or  their  strength,"  says  Mr.  Kinglake,  "descended 
slowly  into  the  valley,  and  the  ground  on  the  bank  of  the 
Alma  on  which  they  were  is  so  even  and  gentle  in  its  slope, 
while  the  bank  on  which  the  Russians  were  was  so  com- 
manding, that  every  man  of  the  invaders  could  be  seen 
from  the  opposite  side." 

For  the  first  half  of  the  day  the  allies  gained  little.  The 
heaviest  fire  of  the  enemy  seemed  always  directed  against 
the  spot  where  Lord  Raglan  and  his  staff  were  standing. 
The  fire  was  terrible  at  some  parts  of  the  day.  The  High- 
landers and  the  Coldstream  Guards  were  mowed  down  by 
grape-shot  after  the  river  was  crossed,  and  they  were  ad- 
vancing up  the  hill  to  take  the  Russian  batteries ;  but  the 
Russian  position  was  carried  by  storm,  and  its  commanding 
officer  made  prisoner. 

Here  is  a  sad  little  story  which  to  most  of  us  will  have 
more  interest  than  mere  military  details  of  the  battle  :  — 

"Colonel  Beckwith  was  seen  leading  his  battalion  of  the 
Rifle  Brigade  with  cool  gallantry  to  the  steep  ascent,  after  ford- 
ing the  Alma.  He  disappeared  in  an  unaccountable  manner. 
His  body  was  not  found  among  the  slain.  Two  days  after  the 
battle  an  ordnance  wagon,  which  had  been  left  behind  near  the 
stream,  was  sent  for.  Colonel  Beckwith  was  found  lying  under 
it  dead.  He  had  died  of  cholera.  He  was  an  officer  who  had 
served  with  credit  twenty-five  years.  He  had  just  attained  the 
highest  regimental  rank ;  he  commanded,  and  was  leading  into 
action,  one  of  the  finest  corps  of  men  in  the  army.  Had  he 
been  shot,  a  nation  would  have  mourned  him  •  but  he  was  com- 
pelled to  fall  out  in  the  agonies  of  cholera,  to  creep  under  this 


132      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

wagon,  and  to  lie  there  alone  like  a  dog.  It  was  not  long  after 
he  had  died  that  he  was  found.  Had  help  come  earlier  they 
might  have  saved  him." 

"  The  brunt  of  the  battle,"  says  a  diplomatist  who  was 
present,  "  fell  on  the  English,  for  the  French  commander 
here  first  displayed  his  serious  intention  of  giving  his  army 
an  unfair  advantage  through  Lord  Raglan's  excess  of  cour- 
tesy. He  claimed  the  right  flank  on  the  march  from  Eupa- 
toria,  the  right  being  protected  by  the  guns  of  the  fleet, 
while  the  English  columns  marched  with  no  protection. 
Thus  it  happened  that  the  English  had  to  storm  the 
strongest  Russian  positions,  while  those  attacked  by  the 
French  were  the  most  weakly  defended.  No  doubt  the 
French  would  have  stormed  the  Russian  positions  as  well 
as  the  English,  but  their  general  had  assigned  them  easier 
ground." 

Saint-Arnaud,  however,  did  full  justice  to  Lord  Raglan. 
Writing  to  his  emperor,  he  says,  "The  antique  courage  of 
the  English  general  was  splendid  to  see."  He  wrote  this, 
too,  without  having  seen,  as  so  many  others  did,  Lord 
Raglan  sitting  in  his  saddle  with  placid  composure  under 
a  tremendous  fire  of  artillery  and  small  arms,  quietly  con- 
versing with  Prince  Napoleon,  who  had  dismounted  to 
dodge  the  shot,  "  knowing,"  as  some  one  remarked  at  the 
time,  "that  napoleons  were  scarce,  and  what  was  their 
value."  t 

It  was  observed  after  the  battle  that  the  dead  were  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  wounded,  the  Russians  having  reserved 
their  fire  till  the  assailants  were  at  very  short  range. 

When  the  battle  was  over,  and  the  Russians  were  in 
retreat,  Lord  Raglan  refused  to  allow  any  pursuit.  He  had 
only  his  Light  Brigade  of  cavalry,  one  thousand  strong,  and 
he  feared  to  risk  its  being  cut  off.  No  prisoners  therefore 
were  taken,  except  the  wounded. 

The  Russian  soldiers,  who  had  shown  great  steadiness 
and  bravery  during  the  fight,  and  began  their  retreat  in  good 
order,  were  seized  with  a  sudden  panic  after  all  danger  was 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR. 


133 


over,  and  fancying  themselves  pursued,  when  there  was 
really  a  long  distance  between  themselves  and  any  English 
or  French  soldiers,  pressed  in  wild  confusion  into  the  river 
Katschov  ;  and  even  after  they  had  crossed  it  a  further  panic 
hurried  them  on  toward  Sebastopol. 

It  is  said  that  just  at  the  turn  of  the  battle  Prince 
Mentzikoff,  observing  some  wavering  at  an  important  point, 
galloped  off  to  see  if  his  presence  would  strengthen  the 
position.  The  country  was  very  rolling.  Having  descended 
an  eminence,  he  could  see  little  before  him.  As  he  hur- 
ried along  the  great  high-road,  he  saw  coming  toward  him 
a  solitary  man  on  foot.  Nearing  him,  he  found  it  was 
Prince  Gortschakoff.  "  You  here?  "  he  cried.  "Where's 
your  horse,  —  your  staff,  —  your  men?"  "My  horse  is 
shot,  my  staff  all  killed  or  wounded,  my  men  dispersed." 

The  news  of  the  battle  of  the  Alma  reached  Queen 
Victoria  at  Balmoral,  and  caused  great  rejoicings,  mingled 
with  grief  for  those  who  mourned  for  friends ;  but  so  totally 
ignorant  was  everybody  at  the  time  of  the  true  situation  of 
affairs  that  when  a  false  telegram,  based  on  the  loose  talk 
of  a  Tartar  peasant,  came  the  next  day,  saying  that  Sebas- 
topol was  taken,  all  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  believed 
it,  except  Lord  Clarendon. 

The  allied  armies  made  brief  stay  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Alma  before  continuing  their  march  to  Sebastopol. 
They  had  no  tents,  no  pack-horses,  no  provision  for  win- 
ter, no  warm  clothing.  It  was  already  autumn,  and  the 
climate  was  severe.  Sebastopol,  it  was  supposed  by  friends 
in  England,  would  be  carried  by  a  coup  de  main,  and  the 
army  would  be  home  by  Christmas,  to  be  feted,  and  glori- 
fied, and  keep  the  universal  holiday  with  gladness  and 
good  cheer. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    CRIMEAN    WAR    (concluded). 

RE  AT  was  the  rejoicing  in  the  English,  French,  and 
Turkish  allied  armies  over  what  Mr.  Kinglake  calls 
"  the  scramble  of  the  Alma." 

It  was  some  days  before  they  could  go  forward,  it  being 
necessary  to  ship  off  the  wounded  to  Constantinople.  The 
Russian  army  under  Prince  Mentzikoff  had  fallen  back  in 
great  disorder  to  Sebastopol,  where  it  was  re-formed,  and 
then  marched  off,  the  English  knew  not  whither,  —  though 
indeed  they  had  little  knowledge  of  any  kind  of  their  enemy 
or  of  his  movements,  and  fancied  that  at  least  a  large  part 
of  the  army  they  had  fought  at  the  Alma  was  strengthening 
Sebastopol. 

In  1870  the  Germans  owed  their  marvellous  and  speedy 
success  in  their  campaign  against  the  French  largely  to  the 
excellence  of  their  maps  and  their  minute  knowledge  of  the 
country.  In  1854  neither  the  French  nor  English  generals, 
nor  any  one  connected  with  their  armies,  appears  to  have 
known  anything  about  the  topography  of  the  Crimea,  or 
the  defences  of  Sebastopol.  The  authentic  military  infor- 
mation that  they  had  upon  the  subject  was  nineteen  years 
old.  The  Russians  had  been  unwilling  to  admit  strangers 
into  Sebastopol  after  it  became  a  naval  station,  and  the  best 
recent  account  concerning  it  that  the  authorities  possessed 
was  from  that  charming  writer  and  enterprising  traveller, 
Mr.  Laurence  Oliphant,  who,  however,  earnestly  advised 
them  either  to  attack  Russia  through  her  Caucasian  prov- 
inces, or  to  occupy  and  defend  the  Isthmus  of  Perekop, 
instead  of  besieging  Sebastopol. 


GENERAL  TODLEBEN. 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR.  135 

Perhaps  before  going  further  I  had  better  try  to  present 
some  intelligible  plan  of  Sebastopol,  though  without  a  map 
it  may  be  difficult  to  do  so.  We  may  fancy  the  extreme 
southern  part  of  the  peninsula  of  the  Crimea  (the  Crimea 
is  almost  as  large  as  Ireland)  shaped  like  a  wolfs  head 
looking  southwest  with  the  mouth  partly  open.  The  open 
mouth  represents  the  roadstead,  within  which  there  is  an 
inner  harbor,  where  the  Russian  fleet  of  eight  line-of- battle 
ships  was  lying.  The  roadstead,  or  rather  arm  of  the  sea 
extending  four  miles  inland,  divides  the  city  into  two  parts. 
The  houses  on  the  southern  side  are  nestled  in  a  little 
valley.  On  the  other  side  of  the  harbor,  on  the  northern 
bank  of  the  inlet,  was  a  fortification  called  the  Star  Fort. 
It  was  the  only  defence  of  Sebastopol  on  its  northern  side, 
and  the  harbor  or  inlet  lay  between  it  and  the  town. 
Sebastopol  had  no  walls,  but  was  protected  by  very  strong 
bastions  or  redoubts.  The  names  of  some  of  these  are 
now  very  familiar.  They  were  the  little  Redan,  the  Mala- 
koff,  the  Redan,  the  Telegraph  Fort,  and  three  or  four 
others.  These  all  extended  from  Inkerman  west  of  the 
inlet  toward  Balaclava.  The  country  was  up-hill  and 
down-dale,  rolling  and  rocky,  entirely  unwooded,  cut  up  by 
ravines  and  gorges.  The  great  high-road  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, a  thousand  miles  away,  ran  straight,  and  white,  and 
unobstructed,  into  the  northern  part  of  the  city.  Balaclava 
was  a  small  seaport  to  the  east  of  the  town,  with  a  harbor 
so  surrounded  by  high  cliffs,  and  with  so  land-locked  an 
entrance,  that  it  looked  like  a  still  lake.  There  was  another 
landing-place  which  the  French  made  into  a  port  not  very 
far  to  the  south  of  it.  Balaclava  was  east  of  Sebastopol, 
and  therefore  the  allies,  who  had  landed  on  the  western 
coast  of  the  Crimea,  had  to  cross  from  the  west  coast  to  the 
east  coast  to  get  there.  Besides  ravines  and  hilly  ridges, 
the  ground  was  cut  up  by  little  mountain  rivulets  which 
made  swamps  in  low  places,  though  the  rest  of  the  ground 
was  sterile. 

The  arm  of  the  sea  of  which  I  have  spoken  as  dividing 


136      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

the  city  of  Sebastopol  is  joined  by  the  little  river  Tchernaya 
near  the  ruins  called  Inkerman. 

This  is  a  very  imperfect  attempt  to  give  an  idea  of  Sebas- 
topol, its  position  and  its  outworks,  but  it  may  possibly 
assist  somewhat  in  conveying  a  faint  conception  of  the  scene 
of  action. 

The  question  between  the  commanders  of  the  French 
and  English  forces,  after  they  had  crossed  the  river  Alma, 
was,  At  what  point  should  they  attack  Sebastopol?  Lord 
Raglan  wanted  to  push  on  at  once,  take  the  Star  Fort  by 
surprise,  and  thence,  across  the  harbor,  bombard  the  town ; 
the  allied  fleets  at  the  same  time  engaging  the  Russian 
fleet,  forcing  their  way  into  the  harbor,  and  assisting  in  the 
attack.  But  Marshal  Saint-Arnaud  would  not  listen  to  this 
plan,  and  in  truth  it  seemed  hazardous  to  many  of  the  best 
military  engineers  in  the  English  army.  We  know  now 
that  there  was  no  large  Russian  army  in  Sebastopol,  as  was 
supposed  at  the  time ;  and  that  if  Lord  Raglan's  plan  had 
been  carried  out,  it  might  have  been  successful.  However, 
no  plan  could  be  followed  that  was  opposed  by  either  the 
English  or  the  French  commander.  So  a  singular  and 
very  different  plan  was  proposed  by  Lord  Raglan,  and 
accepted  by  Saint-Arnaud.  This  was  to  attack  Sebastopol 
on  what  is  called  the  south  side,  instead  of  by  the  Star  Fort 
on  what  is  called  the  north  side,  —  to  march  the  armies 
right  across  the  lower  end  of  the  peninsula  of  the  Crimea, 
to  seize  the  port  of  Balaclava,  to  which  the  fleet  and  trans- 
ports would  move  round ;  to  fix  batteries  upon  the  heights, 
and  thence  bombard  the  city.  This  march  of  the  armies 
from  west  to  east  is  called  in  history  the  flank  march,  and 
was  extremely  perilous.  Had  Prince  Mentzikoff,  who  was 
outside  Sebastopol,  at  large  in  the  Crimea,  attacked  the 
allies  on  their  march,  the  consequences  might  have  been 
disastrous  in  the  extreme.  He  had  quitted  Sebastopol, 
insisting,  to  the  grief  and  indignation  of  the  naval  men  in 
the  city,  that  of  the  eight  beautiful  great  men-of-war  in  the 
harbor,  all  but  one  ("The  Twelve  Apostles")  should  be 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  137 

sunk  across  the  mouth  of  the  roadstead,  and  so  prove  (as 
they  did)  a  complete  defence  to  the  city  on  the  side  of  the 
water.  The  crews  were  taken  on  shore,  and  were  set  to 
work  the  guns  that  defended  the  bastions. 

The  allied  armies  therefore  made  the  flank  march,  and 
the  English  took  possession  of  the  little  port  of  Balaclava. 
As  Lord  Raglan,  who  had  been  foremost  all  the  way  in 
reconnoitring,  sat  on  his  horse  watching  what  seemed  to  him 
a  still  smooth  pool  of  water,  suddenly  there  glided  into  sight 
an  English  ship  with  English  colors  flying,  between  two 
high  cliffs  which  screened  the  entrance  to  the  harbor. 

It  was  arranged  that  the  English  should  hold  Balaclava 
for  their  port,  and  that  the  French  should  content  them- 
selves with  a  less  advantageous  landing-place. 

The  allied  armies  were  in  position  early  in  October. 
Here  is  an  eye-witness's  account  of  the  harbor  of  Bala- 
clava on  the  sixth  day  of  that  month,  1854  :  — 

"  As  we  sailed  round  the  southernmost  extremity  of  the 
Crimea  past  Sebastopol,  the  fine  day  showed  to  great  advantage 
the  blue  scarped  masses  of  the  interior.  Every  second  moun- 
tain seemed  a  natural  fortress.  It  was  like  passing  a  series  of 
Gibraltars.  Sebastopol  we  reconnoitred  at  a  respectful  dis- 
tance. A  jet  of  light  smoke  leapt  every  now  and  then  from  the 
forts.  In  less  than  an  hour  after  passing  it  we  were  steam- 
ing into  the  harbor  of  Balaclava,  skirted  less  with  shores  than 
walls." 

The  harbor  was  strewn  with  the  bloated  carcasses  of  dead 
horses,  which  the  steam-tugs  were  dragging  out  into  the  open 
sea.  The  smell  was  overpowering,  accounting  largely  for  the 
general  prevalence  of  disease.  Our  eye-witness  goes  on  to 
say  that  the  place  reminded  him  of  some  parts  of  Ireland 
where  stone  is  plenty,  and  nothing  else,  and  where  whitewash 
does  duty  for  repairs.  Lord  Raglan's  abode  at  Balaclava  was 
not  much  above  the  level  of  the  general  wretchedness. 
Before  the  door  paced  a  sentry,  "  whose  get-up  was  not  at 
all  out  of  keeping  with  his  surroundings.  He  had  a  soiled 
red  coat ;  its  ragged  worsted  tags  were  the  reverse  of  orna- 


138       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

mental,  and  its  open  collar  showed  neither  stock  nor  shirt. 
His  rusty  black  trousers  gaped  vainly  here  and  there  for 
buttons,  and  were  tucked  up  unceremoniously  at  the  heels  to 
keep  them  dry.  His  boots  were  the  color  of  the  dust  they 
trod  on,  so  were  his  Saxon  locks  and  sun-burnt  face. 
Nevertheless  there  was  that  about  his  quiet,  honest  bearing 
which  would  I  think  have  proclaimed  him,  even  without  the 
distinctive  red,  a  British  soldier."  L 

The  ships  had  by  this  time  brought  in  a  few  tents,  and 
the  greatest  activity  prevailed  upon  the  heights,  where 
batteries  were  being  erected  to  attack  the  Russian  outworks ; 
though  not  a  shot  was  to  be  fired  till  all  were  in  position. 
Everything  had  to  be  dragged  up  the  steep  hills  from 
Balaclava.  All  the  arabas,  or  country  carts,  were  pressed 
into  the  service.  Some  were  drawn  by  little  Tartar  horses, 
some  by  camels,  but  most  by  bullocks.  The  men  who 
owned  them,  though  prisoners  after  a  fashion,  served  the 
English  not  unwillingly ;  they  were  paid  twenty- five  dollars 
a  month,  —  to  them  a  little  fortune ;  but  Mr.  Kinglake 
says  sadly  that  before  the  siege  ended  nearly  all  of  them 
had  died. 

The  gentleman  from  whom  I  have  already  quoted  pushed 
to  the  front,  that  is,  to  the  heights  where  batteries  were 
being  erected  by  one  of  the  English  divisions.  There  he 
was  asked  to  dine  with  the  general  of  the  division  and  his 
staff,  and  this  is  what  he  saw  of  camp-life  that  evening :  — 

"  A  single  wax  candle  set  in  the  bare  ground  lighted  the 
interior.  Canvas  bags,  cloaks,  and  water- proofs  strewed 
around  hid  the  bare  earth,  and  on  them  reclined,  like  the 
ancients  the  general  and  his  staff.  I  was  accommodated 
with  the  only  seat,  that  is,  a  portmanteau."  The  dress  of 
the  officers  was  their  fatigue  uniform,  and  each  wore  his 
forage  cap  during  the  meal. 

The  English  officers  had  bell-tents,  that  is,  tents  with  a 
pole  in  the  centre,  and  a  circular  wall  of  canvas  round  the 
bottom.  The  men  had  at  first  no  tents  at  all,  or  little 

1  Black  wood's  Magazine. 


THE   CRIMEAN    WAR. 


139 


"  kennel  tents,"  only  a  foot  or  two  high,  under  which  they 
crept  for  warmth  and  shelter.  There  were  no  means  of 
washing,  even  for  the  officers,  and  the  eye-witness,  who  was 
a  young  lawyer,  exclaims :  "  Think  of  the  unutterable 
horrors  of  a  state  of  things  where  neither  the  clothing  can 
be  changed  nor  the  body  cleansed  for  weeks  on  weeks. 
Think  of  men,  born  and  trained  as  our  officers  are  trained, 
undergoing  all  this  without  complaint.  The  sea  is  too  dis- 
tant for  bathing,  and,  though  there  are  little  springs  in 
neighboring  hollows,  nobody  has  anything  to  carry  the 
water  in.  The  men  have  tin  pans  that  they  use  for  cook- 
ing, and  the  officers  sometimes  borrow  them  for  basins, 
when  half  a  pint  of  water  can  be  secured." 

The  coloring  of  the  landscape  in  October  was  a  uniform 
drab.  No  vegetation  was  visible.  There  had  been  some 
good  vineyards  on  the  rocky  slopes  round  Balaclava,  but 
they  were  sear  and  grapeless  in  October.  There  were  no 
trees  of  any  growth,  only  scrub  oaks  and  shrubs,  — just  the 
brown  earth,  bristling  with  bunches  of  burnt  up,  star-headed 
thistles,  with  not  a  field  flower  except  an  occasional  anemone. 
The  English  camp  was  between  three  and  four  miles  long, 
stretching  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  plateau  (divided 
by  a  gorge  from  the  old  ruins  of  Inkerman)  to  a  ravine  on 
the  south,  where  the  French  camp  began,  and  continued 
the  cordon  to  the  sea.  Thus  it  will  be  perceived  that 
Sebastopol  was  by  no  means  invested.  The  great  high- 
road to  Saint  Petersburg  lay  open  from  it  into  the  interior ; 
nothing  menaced  the  Star  Fort,  nor  the  peninsula  on  which 
it  stood,  called  in  Russian  books  the  Severnaya.  The 
English  army  was  distributed  in  six  divisions.  The  last 
to  arrive  was  the  cavalry,  —  a  splendid  corps.  The  Scots 
Greys  had  come  out,  —  heavy  dragoons  wearing  bear-skin 
caps,  and  their  horses  all  one  color. 

The  tents,  when  tents  arrived,  were  so  small  that  the 
officers  stored  their  spare  belongings  on  the  outside,  and 
theft  appears  to  have  been  unknown  among  the  soldiers. 
Indeed,  throughout  the  campaign  there  was  very  little 
crime. 


I4O       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

But  there  was  plenty  of  sickness,  —  cholera  and  dysentery, 
scurvy  and  malarial  fever,  —  and  a  great  lack  of  hospital 
surgeons,  and  hospital  comforts.  Pillows  especially  were 
called  for,  and  had  not  been  supplied.  But  the  two  greatest 
wants  were  firewood  and  warm  clothing.  The  men's  uni- 
forms had  been  worn  threadbare,  and  the  English  govern- 
ment, never  having  contemplated  a  prolonged  winter 
campaign  in  the  Crimea,  and  knowing  little  or  nothing  of 
the  Black  Sea  climate,  had  not  provided  for  these  wants  in 
time.  Under  pressing  requisitions  for  great-coats,  blankets, 
etc.,  a  quantity  were  collected  in  haste,  and  all  shipped  on 
board  the  "  Prince,"  which  reached  the  harbor  of  Balaclava 
just  in  time  to  encounter  a  furious  storm  on  November  5, 
which  tore  down  the  tents,  greatly  damaged  the  shipping, 
and  sank  the  "  Prince."  Weeks  of  November  and  December 
weather  had  to  pass  before  the  loss  could  be  supplied. 
The  soldiers,  subject  to  these  privations  and  to  the  pre- 
valence of  disease,  "  could  hardly  have  been  recognized  " 
as  an  officer  remarked,  "  for  the  same  men  who  had  landed 
at  Gallipoli." 

On  Oct.  17  the  French  and  English  batteries  were  all 
prepared  and  the  bombardment  of  the  city  was  begun. 
The  firing  all  day  was  tremendous,  but  during  the  night 
the  Russians,  who  had  General  Todleben,  then  a  young 
officer,  for  their  engineer- in- chief,  repaired  all  the  mischief 
done  by  the  French  and  English  guns  during  the  day. 

On  Oct.  25  took  place  the  battle  of  Balaclava.  I  do  not 
think  it  was  very  much  of  a  battle,  if  we  compare  it  with 
such  fights  as  Blenheim,  Austerlitz,  or  even  Chancellorsville 
or  Gettysburg,  but  it  will  live  forever  in  history  and  litera- 
ture as  famous  for  the  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade. 

The  Russian  army  outside  the  walls  of  Sebastopol  was 
under  the  command  of  General  Liprandi,  who  had  replaced 
Prince  Mentzikoff.  He  came  creeping  up  behind  the 
English  and  French  positions,  and  attacked  them  just 
where  the  two  armies  came  together,  and  where  there  was 
a  battery  of  six  guns  that  had  been  intrusted  to  the  Turks. 


THE  CRIMEAN   WAR.  141 

The  Turks  fired  one  volley,  and  then  fled,  to  the  intense 
disgust  of  Lord  Raglan  who  hated  Turks  at  all  times,  and 
of  his  whole  army.  The  Russians  captured  the  six  cannon, 
and  sang  a  Te  Deum  over  them  that  night  in  Sebastopol. 
The  battle  would  have  been  almost  entirely  an  artillery 
fight,  had  it  not  been  for  two  cavalry  episodes,  the  charge 
of  the  Heavy  Brigade  (that  is,  the  Dragoon  Guards  and 
the  Scotch  Greys)  and  the  Light  Brigade,  under  Lord 
Cardigan,  colonel  of  the  loth  Huzzars. 

Lord  Cardigan  in  his  earlier  days  had  been  an  officer 
who  gave  considerable  trouble  to  the  Horseguards.  He 
quarelled  with  one  of  his  officers  Captain  Harvey  Phipps 
Tuckett,  about  a  bottle  of  sparkling  Moselle  brought  to  the 
mess-table  in  the  original  black  bottle.  Captain  Tuckett 
resigned  his  commission,  and  then  challenged  his  late 
superior  officer.  They  fought  a  duel,  and  Lord  Cardigan 
was  tried  before  the  High  Court  of  Peers.  The  trial  was 
short,  however,  for  an  error  was  discovered  in  the  indict- 
ment, where  Captain  Tuckett's  middle  name  had  been 
omitted.  But  Lord  Cardigan  for  some  time  subsequently 
was  not  on  good  terms  with  many  of  his  officers. 

Many  years  after  Lord  Tennyson's  "  Charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade  "  had  become  universally  popular,  the  poet  was  in- 
duced to  celebrate  in  verse  the  charge  of  the  Heavy  Brigade 
at  Balaclava,  but  the  poem  never  can  attain  the  popularity 
of  its  predecessor. 

"  There  was  a  tremendous  charge  of  Russian  cavalry,  which 
came  over  the  crest  of  the  ridge  that  separated  the  armies,  down 
into  the  valley  between  them.  Those  on  the  heights,  both  Rus- 
sians and  allies,  looked  down  upon  the  spectacle,  unobscured 
by  cannon-smoke,  which  is  unusual  in  a  battle.  It  was  as  if  they 
were  spectators  in  an  arena  gazing  upon  a  fight  of  gladiators. 
The  Scots  Greys  advanced  first,  impeded  however  by  the 
drains  and  picket  lines  of  their  own  encampment,  but,  soon 
extricating  themselves,  they  were  mingled  among  the  Russians, 
their  red  coats,  fur  caps,  and  gray  horses  making  them  con- 
spicuous. Then  came  up  the  fourth  and  fifth  regiments  of 
Heavy  Dragoons.  For  a  moment  sword-cuts  and  lance-thrusts 


142       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

were  exchanged,  then  the  Russians  turned  and  fled  confusedly 
over  the  slopes,  pursued  for  several  hundred  yards  by  the  whole 
force  of  the  heavy  cavalry.  The  Greys,  broken  before  their 
comrades  came  up,  rallied  in  time  to  join  in  the  pursuit."  l 

That  is  the  story  of  the  Heavy  Brigade. 

The  story  of  the  Light  Brigade,  which  was  a  body  of 
cavalry  made  up  of  parts  of  several  regiments,  we  all  know 
partly.  While  the  Heavies  were  engaged,  the  Light  Brigade 
had  advanced  to  the  edge  of  the  slopes,  whence  they  could 
look  down  on  the  Russians  as  they  rallied  on  their  own  side 
of  the  valley.  On  the  slope  the  Russians  had  planted  a  bat- 
tery flanked  by  two  others,  to  repel  any  attack  that  might 
be  made  on  them.  Captain  Nolan,  a  brave  Irish  officer,  who 
had  written  a  book  on  tactics,  brought  an  order  to  the  com- 
mander of  the  Light  Cavalry  to  charge  the  enemy,  and  to 
take  their  cannon.  To  do  this  with  only  cavalry  seemed 
desperate,  but  Nolan  asserted  the  order  to  be  peremptory, 
and  joining  in  the  charge  which  presently  took  place,  he 
was  struck  by  a  shell  in  the  breast,  and  fell  dead. 

"  Never  did  cavalry  show  more  daring  to  less  purpose.  Re- 
ceived in  front  and  flank  by  a  fire  which  strewed  the  ground 
for  half  a  mile  of  the  distance  which  separated  them  from  the 
enemy  with  men  and  horses,  they  nevertheless  forced  their  way 
between  the  guns,  and  slew  the  gunners.  Their  gallantry  availed 
them  nothing.  The  whole  Russian  force  was  before  them.  A 
body  of  Russian  cavalry  interposed  to  cut  off  their  retreat  across 
the  valley,  and,  assailed  on  every  side  by  every  arm  of  the  ser- 
vice, and  their  ranks  utterly  broken,  they  were  compelled  to  fight 
their  way  back,  and  to  regain  their  position  under  the  same 
artillery  fire  that  had  crashed  into  their  advance.  Singly,  or  in 
twos  or  threes,  these  gallant  horsemen  returned,  some  on  foot, 
many  wounded,  some  supporting  a  stricken  comra'de.  The  same 
fire  that  had  shattered  their  ranks  had  also  reached  the  Heavy 
Cavalry,  now  rallied  on  the  slope  behind,  who  also  suffered  se- 
verely. The  English  loss  would  have  been  greater  but  for  the 
timely  charge  of  a  body  of  French  cavalry,  which,  descending 
from  the  plateau,  advanced  up  the  Russian  heights,  where  they 
silenced  a  destructive  battery." 

1  Blackwood's  Magazine. 


THE  CRIMEAN   WAR.  143 

Such  is  the  story  in  the  words  of  a  staff  officer  who  wrote 
his  narrative  a  few  hours  after  the  battle.  "  Never  did  cav- 
alry show  more  daring  to  less  purpose,"  he  says;  and  a 
Russian  officer,  speaking  of  it  afterwards  called  it  "  magnifi- 
cent folly."  And  yet  can  we  say  that  it  had  not  its  use  and 
its  lesson,  —  its  encouragement,  and  its  purpose  ?  Whose 
sense  of  the  duty  of  unquestioning  obedience  is  not  stirred 
when  he  says  the  words,  "The  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  "  ? 
It  is  one  of  the  world's  great  feats  of  arms,  one  of  all  soldiers' 
great  military  lessons.  It  will  act  as  a  trumpet-call,  as  long 
as  wars  may  last,  to  all  English-speaking  soldiers.  It  is 
almost  the  best  good  England,  or  the  world,  gathered  from 
all  the  toils  and  sufferings  of  that  Crimean  War. 

The  Light  Brigade  —  that  thousand  men  Lord  Raglan 
had  cherished  so  carefully  from  the  time  of  his  landing  at 
Eupatoria  —  had  in  less  than  a  month  shrunk  to  the  Six 
Hundred  who  made  the  charge.  Of  that  six  hundred,  two 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  were  killed,  wounded,  or  missing ; 
of  these,  twenty-one  were  officers ;  and  three  hundred  and 
thirty-five  horses  were  destroyed.  The  Heavies  lost  over 
one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  ten  of  whom  were  officers,  and 
forty  horses. 

Lord  Tennyson's  first  version  of  his  poem  contained  a 
verse  which  he  amended  afterwards  to  soothe  the  feelings  of 
the  family  of  Captain  Nolan,  but  he  did  not  improve  his 
poetry,  or  his  facts,  by  the  alteration.  "'Take  the  guns,' 
Nolan  said,"  and  "  Some  one  had  blundered,"  add  im- 
mensely to  the  spirit-stirring  effect  of  the  poem. 

Lord  Raglan  was  bitterly  grieved  by  the  blunder  com- 
mitted, and  its  consequences.  A  controversy  on  the  subject 
subsequently  sprang  up  between  Lord  Lucan,  Lord  Cardi- 
gan, and  the  commander-in-chief,  which  was  carried  into 
Parliament,  and  was  not  ended  for  several  years. 

This  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  pretty  much  ended  the 
battle  of  Balaclava.  The  Russians  kept  possession  of  all 
that  they  had  won  for  some  hours.  The  battle  began  be- 
fore dawn,  and  the  English  fought  fasting  until  after  dark, 
when  rum  and  biscuit  were  served  out  to  them. 


144       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

The  Russians  retired  that  night,  having  gained  nothing  by 
their  battle.  They  had  intended  to  surprise  the  English,  and 
to  force  their  way  between  the  two  parts  of  the  allied  army. 
All  the  advantage  they  had  gained  was  gained  over  the  Turks. 

The  next  day  an  attack  (called  sometimes  the  first 
battle  of  Inkerman)  was  made  upon  the  English,  but  the 
Russians  were  repulsed. 

On  November  5  the  Russian  army,  having  been  joined 
by  the  czar's  sons,  the  Grand  Dukes  Michael  and  Constan- 
tine,  made  another  supreme  effort.  This  is  called  the  bat- 
tle of  Inkerman,  and  is  the  last  of  the  great  battles  fought 
around  Sebastopol.  Thenceforward  the  military  operations 
were  those  of  bombardment  rather  than  of  battle. 

This  battle  of  Inkerman  began  also  before  the  gray  dawn 
of  a  November  day  (the  day  of  the  great  storm  which 
wrecked  the  "  Prince  "),  and  it  was  fought  fasting  by  the 
English.  But  the  surprise  intended  by  the  Russians  failed. 
Their  loss  was  enormous.  The  battle  was  fought  by  both 
French  and  English  serving  together ;  indeed  the  French 
in  one  brilliant  charge  were  led  by  an  English  general. 
By  half-past  three  it  was  all  over,  and  the  whole  force  of 
the  Russians  had  retired  beyond  the  Tchernaya,  the  river 
which  empties  into  the  escuary  on  which  Sebastopol  is  situ- 
ated. Eight  thousand  English  and  six  thousand  French 
were  engaged  in  the  battle  of  Inkerman ;  the  Russian  force 
was  estimated  by  Lord  Raglan  at  fifty  thousand. 

It  was  said  that  the  Russians  killed  wounded  English  sol- 
diers on  the  field.  This  being  represented  under  a  flag  of 
truce  to  the  authorities  in  Sebastopol,  the  reply  was  "  that 
it  could  only  have  been  done  in  individual  instances,  and 
that  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Russians  were  much 
exasperated  by  the  destruction  during  the  bombardment  of 
one  of  the  churches  in  Sebastopol." 

Meantime  a  change  of  commanders  had  taken  place 
among  the  French.  Poor  Saint-Arnaud  had  been  desper- 
ately ill,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  voyage  to  Eupatoria.  On 
landing,  his  extraordinary  power  of  conquering  bodily  pain 
enabled  him  to  seem  to  many  as  well  as  ever. 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR.  145 

After  the  camp  was  formed  he  was  attacked  by  cholera. 
Of  this  he  was  cured,  but  it  left  him  no  strength  to  stand 
the  next  attack  of  his  chronic  malady.  On  leaving  France 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  had  given  him  General  Trochu  as 
chief  of  staff  to  advise  him,  Saint-Arnaud  having  had  no 
experience  in  the  command  of  a  large  army.  But  the 
emperor  was  secretive,  and  loved  hidden  ways.  He  had 
also  given  General  Canrobert  a  commission  (which  was  to 
be  kept  a  profound  secret  until  necessity  called  for  its  dis- 
closure), appointing  him  to  succeed  Marshal  Saint-Arnaud, 
in  case  that  commander  should  be  disabled. 

The  day  before  landing  at  Eupatoria,  Canrobert,  believing 
his  chief  to  be  dangerously  ill,  told  him  of  this  commission. 
Saint-Arnaud  acquiesced  in  silence.  When  his  next  terrible 
attack  came  on  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  have  a 
conference  with  the  English  commander.  He  braced  him- 
self rigidly  in  his  chair,  and  went  through  the  interview  with 
fortitude  ;  but  Lord  Raglan,  as  he  left  him,  remarked  to  a 
staff-officer  that  the  French  commander  was  dying.  The 
next  day  he  was  too  ill  to  do  more  than  say :  "  Send  for 
Canrobert." 

Canrobert  took  the  command.  The  dying  marshal  was 
carried  on  board  a  French  man-of-war,  a  priest  attending 
him.  He  had  been  on  board  only  a  few  hours  when  he 
breathed  his  last.  "  He  died  en  chretien "  said  his 
spiritual  adviser,  and  it  was  true  that,  reckless  and  dissolute 
as  had  been  his  life,  he  had  never  been  a  scoffer.  He  had 
also  tender  family  affections.  His  last  act  on  the  morning 
of  his  embarkation  had  been  to  send  his  carriage  and  horses 
as  a  present  to  General  Bosquet  who  had  been  his  personal 
enemy. 

General  Canrobert  had  commanded  the  French  troops 
Dec.  2,  1851,  in  the  massacre  on  the  Boulevard,  but  this 
was  the  only  stain  upon  his  reputation.  He  was  red- faced, 
blunt,  and  soldierly,  —  a  great  contrast  to  the  Parisian  type 
of  the  Frenchman  in  Saint-Arnaud.  "Poor  Saint-Arnaud! 
I  shall  miss  him,  and  regret  him,"  said  the  kindly  Lord 

10 


146       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Raglan ;  "  he  was  always  friendly  and  pleasant  in  his  inter- 
course with  me." 

And  now,  all  the  battles  being  over,  nothing  remained 
for  the  armies  but  the  bombardment,  the  bleak  winter,  the 
chilling  winds,  the  scanty  fuel,  the  insufficient  clothing  — 
endurance,  and  still  endurance,  with  work  in  the  deep  mud 
of  the  trenches,  and  the  never  ending  roar  of  the  round 
shot  and  the  shells. 

This  terrible  suffering  from  sickness,  starvation,  bitter  cold, 
and  over-work,  lasted  from  October,  1854,  to  the  end  of 
February,  1855.  By  that  time  stores  and  supplies  had  come 
in  in  great  quantities,  and  a  railroad  from  Balaclava  to  the 
heights,  carried  them  up  to  the  English  encampment.  After 
this  the  foes  to  be  contended  with  were  the  Russians,  the 
mud,  and  the  climate  of  the  Crimea. 

We  must  never  forget  that  the  French  were  so  posted  that 
their  supplies  could  be  landed  near  their  camp.  Besides 
which,  the  English  army  lay  between  their  army  and  the 
Russians.  The  French  could  not  be  attacked  until  the 
English  line  was  pierced.  Therefore  all  attacks  fell  first 
upon  the  British. 

"  As  soon  as  a  change  of  temperature  checked  the  ravages 
of  the  cholera,"  says  the  staff  officer  already  quoted,  "  the 
wet  set  in,  bringing  a  new  train  of  diseases.  Horrible 
cramps  seized  those  exposed  sometimes  for  nights  in  suc- 
cession in  the  trenches.  In  their  ragged  garments  and  with 
feet  almost  bare,  the  soldiers  paced  the  wet  mud,  or, 
wrapped  in  a  single  blanket,  lay  in  holes,  which  they  dug 
behind  the  batteries,  shivering  the  livelong  night.  When 
relieved  they  crept  back,  not  to  the  comfort  of  warm  fires, 
and  hot  coffee,  and  sound  sleep,  for  fuel  was  so  scanty  that  it 
had  to  be  searched  for  by  the  soldier,  and  sometimes 
brought  miles  in  his  arms  before  he  could  cook  his  ration ; 
and  the  coffee  was  issued  unroasted,  and  unground,  so  that 
it  was  perfectly  useless.  All  the  wearied  soldier  off  duty 
had  to  seek  was  the  bleak  shelter  of  his  tent." 

In  December  and  January  the  sick  in  the  English  camp 


THE   CRIMEAN  WAR.  147 

numbered  as  many  as  thirty-nine  hundred  in  one  day,  and 
was  never  less  than  two  thousand  ;  besides  all  those  who  were 
in  hospital  at  Balaclava,  or  Scutari,  or  had  been  sent  home  to 
England.  No  wonder  work  fell  heavily  on  those  who  were 
not  sick }  no  wonder  that  since  the  trenches  must  be  held 
at  any  cost,  the  same  men  sometimes  had  to  man  them 
night  after  night  because  there  were  no  others.1 

A  force  of  working  men  was  collected  in  England  to 
labor  in  the  trenches  and  to  lay  the  railroad  about  six  miles 
from  Balaclava  to  the  English  position.  Before  this  work 
could  be  accomplished  all  necessaries  had  to  be  brought 
painfully  from  Balaclava.  Day  after  day  men  and  horses, 
enfeebled  by  hardship,  traversed  the  roads  clogged  by  mire 
and  snow,  to  and  fro  between  the  seashore  and  the  encamp- 
ment. Sometimes  the  soldiers  walked  there  and  back, 
twelve  miles,  to  get  their  rations,  and  did  not  break  their 
fast  till  late  in  the  day.  The  cavalry  had  to  bring  up  their 
forage  on  their  horses.  A  horse  could  carry  a  truss  of  hay, 
a  wagon  five  or  six  trusses,  but  it  required  ten  horses  to 
draw  it  loaded,  owing  to  the  depth  of  the  mud. 

"  Let  the  reader,"  says  the  staff- officer,  "  imagine  in  the 
coldest  days  of  an  English  winter,  the  poorest  family  he  has 
ever  known,  whose  food  is  just  sufficient  to  sustain  exis- 
tence, whose  fuel  is  mere  stubble  and  trash  picked  up  upon 
neighboring  commons  and  hedges,  who  lie  down  hungry 
and  cold  at  night  to  shiver  till  cheerless  morning,  and  then 
remember  that  to  all  these  privations  must  be  added  want 
of  shelter  from  drenching  rain  and  sleet  and  frost,  and  he 
will  be  able  to  realize  the  condition  of  the  troops  in  front 
of  Sebastopol  after  the  end  of  October." 

1  It  was  in  this  service  that  Capt.  Hedley  Vicars  was  killed,  the 
Christian  hero  whose  biography  stirred  many  hearts  in  England  and 
America.  The  public  also  was  greatly  interested  in  a  book  called 
"  English  Hearts  and  Hands,"  an  account  written  by  Miss  Kate  Marsh, 
daughter  of  a  well  known  rector  of  Leamington,  describing  mission 
work  among  the  navvies  collected  at  Sydenham  to  be  sent  out  to  the 
Crimea  and  relieve  the  soldiers  from  the  work  of  digging  in  the 
trenches.  —  E.  W.  L. 


148       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

The  blame  for  this  lies  chiefly  with  that  press  and  that 
public  which  forced  the  ministry  of  the  day  to  oblige  Lord 
Raglan,  against  his  better  judgment,  to  undertake  an  enter- 
prise of  which  no  one  knew  the  hardships,  and  for  which 
his  army  was  entirely  unprepared.  Every  one  in  England 
had  expected  that  the  gallant  armies  would  carry  Russia 
as  it  were  by  a  coup  de  main,  and  by  Christmas,  after  a 
glorious  peace,  be  safe  home  on  their  own  shores.  There- 
fore no  preparations  had  been  made  for  winter  comforts  or 
for  winter  clothing.  Even  the  men's  overcoats  were  lost  in 
the  wreck  of  the  ship  that  carried  them  ;  many  were  with- 
out drawers,  flannel  shirts,  or  new  clothes  till  January, 
when  these  articles  began  to  arrive  in  a  profusion  almost  as 
embarrassing  to  the  commissariat  as  their  absence  ;  for  by 
this  time  the  poor  horses  had  so  died  off  that  to  get  stores 
to  the  camp  seemed  beyond  their  powers.  The  ships  lay 
in  the  harbor  with  clothing  to  warm  and  huts  to  shelter  the 
perishing  troops,  —  succors  no  more  available  than  if  they 
had  been  a  thousand  miles  away. 

"  Our  troops,"  the  staff-officer  continues,  "  are  paying 
the  price  of  being  Englishmen  in  this  terrible  winter. 
They  are  brave  and  indomitable,  and  will  therefore  be 
victorious  ;  but  few  and  ill-provided  for  war,  and  therefore 
sorely  distressed." 

Three  large  hospitals  had  been  established  by  the  English 
on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  nearly  opposite  Constantinople. 
To  these  hospitals  were  sent  Miss  Nightingale  and  her  staff 
of  nurses.  On  her  arrival  at  Scutari  she  found  at  first 
absolutely  nothing,  —  no  beds,  no  comforts ;  and  vessels 
were  in  sight  bringing  the  wounded  from  the  battle  of  the 
Alma.  There  were  plenty  of  medical  stores,  but  they  could 
not  be  procured  without  orders  from  the  proper  officer; 
and  he  was  away.  Then  came  in  her  power  as  a  woman. 
She  took  the  responsibility.  She  ordered  a  party  of  sol- 
diers to  break  open  the  doors,  stood  in  the  entrance,  and 
saw  everything  distributed  herself,  and,  by  the  time  the 
sick  were  landed,  all  was  ready  for  them.  Miss  Par- 


FLORENCE  NIGHTINGALE. 


THE  CRIMEAN   WAR. 

thenope  Nightingale  and  Miss  Florence  Nightingale  were 
born  respectively  at  Naples  and  at  Florence.  Miss  Par- 
thenope  married  Sir  Harry  Verney,  the  papers  of  whose 
family  she  recently  edited.  Long  before  the  Crimean 
War  these  ladies  were  known  as  foremost  in  good  works. 
Men,  themselves  distinguished  in  philanthropic  efforts, 
reverenced  and  admired  them.1 

I  think  the  general  idea  of  lady  nurses  in  military  hos- 
pitals or  in  the  rear  of  armies  is  that  they  nurse  the  sick 
and  tend  the  wounded.  These  duties  belong  generally  to 
hospital  stewards ;  the  ladies  are  rather  the  housekeepers, 
the  administrators,  the  care-takers.  Theirs  is  the  feminine 
place  in  the  hospitals.  Like  their  less  distinguished  sisters, 
they  "  rule  the  house."  They  see  to  the  cooking,  they  see 
that  each  man  gets  what  the  doctor  has  ordered  for  him. 

1  I  feel  myself  permitted  to  transcribe  a  letter  written  in  those  days 
to  an  American  friend  by  Miss  Parthenope  Nightingale  :  — 

EMBLEY  PARK,  ROMSEY,  November  20,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  B ,  — It  is  very  long  since  we  have  had  any 

communication ;  but  I  cannot  help,  now  that  my  sister  has  set  forth 
on  what  one  of  her  friends  calls  the  true  crusade,  writing  you  a 
few  words.  Has  it  reached  you  across  the  Atlantic  that  government 
has  sent  her  out  on  a  mission  to  the  hospitals  at  Scutari  ?  I  think  it 
will  be  shortest  to  send  you  Mr.  Herbert's  letter,  and  a  little  sketch  of 
her,  written  we  know  not  by  whom,  but  very  correct  The  letter  was 
published  without  our  leave,  but  it  saves  me  so  much  explanation 
that  I  must  send  it,  for  I  am  overdone  with  writing  We  have  been 
organizing  a  second  detachment  of  nurses  in  case  she  writes  for  them; 
and  the  quantity  of  offers  of  all  kinds  (old  linen,  books,  money,  knitted 
things,  etc.)  to  any  amount  have  been  extraordinary;  as  also  nurses 
of  all  grades  and  kinds,  —  367  was  the  last  number  I  set  down.  From 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  the  enthusiasm  for  her  has  been  something 
wonderful;  even  the  railroads  refused  to  be  paid  for  her  boxes.  We 
have  refused  to  give  her  picture  to  the  newspapers;  but  they  say  that 
fancy  portraits  have  been  made  of  her,  so  that  we  shall  perhaps  repent 
ourselves;  but  we  did  not  like  putting  her  as  it  were  into  the  glare  of 

day.     Dear  Mrs.  B ,  I  ought  perhaps  to  excuse  this  monotheme ; 

but  I  feel  sure  you  will  be  interested  about  her.    With  the  united  kind 

regards  of  my  father  and  mother  to  yourself  and  Mr.  B , 

Believe  me  yours  sincerely, 

PARTHO  NIGHTINGALE. 


I5O      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

They  keep  the  supplies  of  comforts  under  their  care,  and 
see  to  their  proper  distribution.  The  laundries  are  under 
their  supervision.  They  have  everything  ready  for  the 
arrival  of  the  sick ;  they  see  that  every  convalescent  goes 
away  comfortably  provided.  They  perform  all  offices  of 
kindness  for  men  who  are  sick  or  dying,  cheer  them,  write 
letters  for  them,  stand  by  them,  if  necessary,  in  supreme 
moments,  direct  everything  in  obedience  to  the  doctors, 
see  that  nothing  is  left  undone.  Probably,  when  Miss 
Nightingale  reached  Scutari,  there  was  no  organization 
among  her  nurses.  There  were  about  forty  women  with 
her.  Eight  were  Protestant  ladies,  ten  were  Sisters  of 
Charity,  and  the  rest  were  attendants,  or  professional  nurses, 
who  had  had  experience. 

By  the  end  of  January  there  were  five  thousand  sick  in 
these  three  English  hospitals.  Each  day  in  the  largest  hos- 
pital about  sixty  died.  The  dead  were  sewed  up  in  their 
blankets,  laid  in  the  dead-house,  carried  in  country  carts  to 
the  burial  ground,  where  each  day's  dead  were  laid  in  one 
pit,  and  the  English  chaplain  read  the  burial  service  over 
them. 

The  hospitals  were  well  heated,  for  that  winter  of  1854- 
1855  was  especially  cold.  It  seems  as  if  the  Winter  King 
was  always  on  the  side  of  Russia.  Hospital  supplies  too  were 
abundant  and  of  the  best  kind. 

"  In  the  great  kitchen  of  the  great  hospital,"  says  one 
who  visited  them,  "  rice  pudding,  manufactured  on  a  large 
scale,  was  transferred,  smoking,  by  an  enormous  ladle  to  the 
destined  plates;  beef  tea  and  mutton  broth  were  being 
cooked  in  large  caldrons  such  as  the  witches  danced  round 
in  Macbeth,  and  flocks  of  poultry  were  simmering  into 
boiled  fowls  or  chicken  broth." 

It  is  pleasant  to  look  upon  this  picture  after  thinking  of 
the  privations  in  the  camp  before  Sebastopol.  Some  con- 
valescents were  sent  back  to  the  army ;  but,  alas,  few  of 
them  that  winter  supported  a  renewal  of  their  hardships, 
and  nearly  all  died. 


THE  CRIMEAN    WAR.  151 

In  the  middle  of  March  a  most  surprising  piece  of  news 
reached  Lord  Raglan  at  Sebastopol.  "  The  Emperor  Nich- 
olas is  dead.  Reliable."  was  all  that  was  said  by  the  tele- 
graphic message.  The  English  commander  could  not 
believe  it;  but  the  next  day  came  the  same  news  to 
General  Canrobert. 

He  was  gone,  —  the  Agamemnon  among  European  kings, 
—  taller  by  head  and  shoulders,  bodily,  than  the  rest,  and 
taller  metaphorically.  He  was  a  man  who,  until  his  un- 
happy quarrel  with  England,  had  aimed  to  stand  before  the 
world  as  a  man  of  honor.  His  mighty  heart  had  been 
broken.  He  may  not  physically  have  died  of  a  broken 
heart  (few  people  do)  ;  but  he  died  of  the  war,  its  disap- 
pointments, its  anxieties,  its  worries. 

The  feeling  of  the  mass  of  the  Russian  people  toward 
the  Emperor  Nicholas  was  almost  the  awe  and  reverent 
affection  mankind  might  feel  for  a  demigod.  His  nobles 
chafed  under  the  sternness  of  his  administration ;  but  to 
Russians  in  general  he  seemed  a  kind  of  divine  personage, 
whose  will  could  not  be  disputed  without  impiety.  There 
was  no  nobler  moment  in  the  life  of  Nicholas  than  that  in 
which  he  braved  a  howling  mob  who  were  accusing  the 
Poles  and  the  doctors  of  being  the  authors  of  the  cholera. 
He  went  down  into  the  midst  of  them,  and  suddenly  throw- 
ing back  his  large  cloak,  exclaimed  in  his  commanding 
voice  :  "  Wretches  !  down  on  your  knees,  —  down  every 
one  of  you,  and  pray  the  Father  in  heaven  to  pardon 
those  sins  that  have  brought  the  pestilence  upon  you ;  for 
it  is  those  sins  that  have  brought  it  into  your  homes  !  " 

His  courage  never  forsook  him.  His  mind  was  vigorous 
to  the  last ;  but  his  physical  powers  gave  way  under  the 
accumulation  and  complication  of  his  responsibilities.  He 
was  head  of  the  Greek  Church  in  Russia,  and  he  con- 
scientiously believed  himself  to  be  the  heaven-appointed 
protector  of  Greek  Christians  in  the  land  of  the  Infidel. 
To  him  the  war  with  Turkey  (and  the  Crimean  War  itself) 
was  a  holy  war,  and  with  this  feeling  he  inspired  his  people. 


152       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  his  arduous  career  he  was  actu- 
ated and  upheld  by  a  sense  of  duty.  He  lived  and  died  in 
harness.  He  sacrificed  himself  continually  to  the  position 
in  which  he  thought  he  ought  to  move.  If  there  was  a 
fire  in  his  capital  the  first  man  there  upon  the  coldest 
January  night  would  be  the  emperor.  Never  does  he  seem 
to  have  bestowed  a  thought  on  his  own  comfort  as  a  man 
when  it  came  in  the  way  of  what  he  considered  his  dignity 
as  the  czar  of  Russia. 

He  rose  regularly  at  seven  o'clock  in  all  seasons,  and  took 
a  cold  shower-bath ;  then  he  slipped  on  an  old  military  over- 
coat which  he  used  as  a  dressing-gown,  and  looked  over  his 
papers.  That  done  he  took  a  cup  of  cafe  noir,  dressed,  and 
walked  round  the  palace  in  a  sort  of  tour  of  inspection. 
In  his  own  country  no  man  ever  saw  him  out  of  uniform. 
The  only  relaxation  of  dress  that  he  ever  permitted  himself 
was  sometimes  in  his  study  to  take  off  his  epaulets,  or  to 
unbutton  the  tight  collar  of  his  coat.  At  ten  o'clock  he 
always  visited  the  empress,  and  passed  half  an  hour  with 
his  family.  He  was  faithful  to  the  motto  :  "  Punctuality  is 
the  politeness  of  princes."  No  one  ever  found  him  one 
minute  behind  time,  but  he  allowed  five  minutes'  grace  to 
others.  At  two  o'clock  he  went  out,  sometimes  in  a  drosky, 
sometimes  in  a  sleigh,  according  to  the  season,  but  more 
often  on  foot,  and  generally  alone,  wrapped  in  the  large 
gray  cloak  worn  by  Russian  officers.  Many  were  his  adven- 
tures in  the  streets,  though  it  was  forbidden  to  speak  to 
him. 

Smoking  he  detested  and  discouraged,  and  would  not 
allow  a  cigar  on  the  streets  of  St.  Petersburg ;  though  one 
judges  from  the  writings  of  Count  Tolstoi  that  elsewhere 
the  Russian  officers  smoked  like  other  men. 

After  dinner,  at  which  he  never  sat  more  than  half  an 
hour,  the  emperor  played  for  a  while  with  his  children. 
The  only  amusements  he  cared  for  in  winter  were  the 
theatre  and  masked  balls,  and  in  summer,  walks  and  drives 
with  his  family.  He  painted  well  himself  in  the  style  of 


THE  CRIMEAN   WAR. 


153 


Wouvermans,  but  for  any  such  employment  he  had  very 
little  time. 

At  eleven  he  usually  went  to  bed,  but  would  never  allow 
himself  to  sleep  until  he  had  looked  over  every  paper  laid 
upon  his  table.  Often  at  night,  even  in  the  coldest  weather, 
he  would  get  up  and  go  out  to  inspect  the  guard-house  and 
the  sentries. 

About  the  age  of  forty  he  was  in  all  the  splendor  of  manly 
beauty,  —  "Jupiter  and  Apollo  combined,"  says  one  of  his 
admirers.  He  was  considerably  over  six  feet  in  height,  his 
features  were  regular,  his  mouth  was  by  turns  severe  or 
sweet,  his  voice  magnificent.  His  walk  was  particularly  fine. 
But  he  had  no  personal  vanity,  and  it  was  hard  to  get  him  to 
spend  money  on  his  clothes.  He  said  "  extravagance  meant 
robbery  of  the  poor."  A  lady  once  said  to  him  at  a  masked 
ball :  "  Do  you  know,  Sire,  that  you  are  the  handsomest 
man  in  Russia?  "  "  I  did  not  know  it,  madam,"  he  replied ; 
"but  if  I  am  that  is  nobody's  concern  but  that  of  the 
empress." 

He  was  capable  of  storms  of  passion,  and  also  capable 
of  making  generous  apologies  when  his  anger  had  carried 
him  too  far. 

His  mother  had  told  him  once  that  he  must  keep  well 
with  England.  He  did  keep  well  with  her  for  twenty  years ; 
and  he  broke  with  her  unwillingly,  I  cannot  but  think  under 
circumstances  of  exceeding  provocation.  His  great  heart 
broke  under  the  strain.  During  the  last  months  of  his  life 
he  was  haunted  by  a  dread  of  hereditary  insanity;  but 
although  he  became  nervous  and  irritable,  his  mind  was 
unclouded  to  the  last.  He  made  his  preparations  for  death 
with  perfect  orderliness  and  composure.  It  is  said  that 
when  the  supreme  moment  approached  he  requested  all 
those  about  him  to  leave  his  chamber  that  he  might  meet 
the  great  enemy  face  to  face  alone. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Alexander  II.,  a  much 
milder  man,  who  was  sincerely  anxious  for  the  welfare  of 
his  people.  He  became  the  emancipator  of  the  serfs,  the 


154       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

promoter  of  reforms,  and  was  in  the  end  the  victim  of 
Nihilists. 

"At  the  beginning  of  March,  1855,  winter  in  the  Crimea 
seemed  to  have  departed,"  says  my  staff-officer ;  "  only  a  few 
cold  days  lingered  in  scattered  order  in  its  rear.  The  health 
of  the  troops  was  steadily  improving.  New  batteries  had 
been  admirably  constructed  and  were  connected  with  others 
by  long  lines  of  trenches,  and  there  were  many  new  and 
efficient  guns." 

Prince  Mentzikoff  died  at  about  the  same  time  as  his 
great  master,  whom  he  had  so  largely  helped  to  bring  into 
the  war. 

In  order  to  understand  the  future  military  operations  of 
the  siege  it  will  be  desirable,  if  we  can,  to  get  a  good  idea 
of  the  defences.  I  repeat  that  Sebastopol  is  not  a  walled 
city.  It  was  defended  by  redoubts  of  great  strength,  the 
principal  of  which  were  the  Redan  and  the  Malakoff. 
These  were  called  by  the  Russians  the  Fourth  and  Fifth 
Bastions.  A  little  in  front  of  the  Malakoff  was  the  Mam- 
elon,  a  low,  round-topped  hill.  The  English  had  pro- 
posed to  occupy  it,  but  the  Russians  got  it  first  and  crowned 
it  with  batteries. 

On  Easter  Sunday,  April  8,  Sebastopol  was  bombarded 
furiously  by  the  French  and  by  the  English,  with  a  view  to 
an  assault,  as  was  believed,  by  the  army.  But  though  many 
Russian  guns  were  silenced  and  disabled,  the  bombardment 
produced  very  little  effect. 

Up  to  this  time  life  in  Sebastopol  had  gone  on  much  as 
usual.  The  bands  played  of  an  evening  on  the  Parade,  the 
shops  were  open,  the  city  was  not  invested.  There  was  free 
communication  by  the  great  high-road  with  St.  Petersburg 
and  Moscow.  Letters  came  and  went,  and  food  and  rein- 
forcements came  in.  But  after  May,  1855,  things  changed. 
There  was  food  in  plenty,  and  officers  were  arriving  from 
St.  Petersburg  and  departing,  but  the  city  was  in  ruins.  The 
hospitals  were  filled  and  badly  served,  so  that  the  sights  and 
smells  in  them  were  sickening.  The  guns  in  the  redoubts 


THE   CRIMEAN   WAR. 


155 


were  chiefly  manned  by  sailors,  the  masts  of  whose  ships 
(those  ships  in  which  they  had  taken  such  pride)  were 
sticking  out  of  the  water  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor. 
In  each  redoubt  there  were  bomb-proofs  with  underground 
chambers  hollowed  out  for  the  officer  on  duty,  and  also  as 
sleeping-places  for  his  subordinates.  These  redoubts  were 
reached  from  the  city  through  trenches  so  deep  in  mud  that 
the  men  generally  preferred  walking  at  all  risks  on  the  path 
above  them.  The  Russians  called  their  enemy  "  He."  The 
rank  and  file  fully  believed  themselves  engaged  in  a  Holy 
War,  against  "  Him "  for  their  Greek  Church  and  their 
beloved  emperor. 

What  we  have  learned  to  call  Nihilism  in  Russia  exists 
only  among  the  educated  or  half- educated  classes.  It  has 
no  hold  on  the  peasantry.  The  czar  has  been  always  con- 
sidered, —  and,  to  a  large  extent,  is  considered  still  —  their 
father,  and  their  friend. 

By  the  middle  of  May  the  English,  who  had  received  new 
cannon  which  carried  farther  than  the  Russian  guns,  were 
doing  terrible  execution  in  Sebastopol.  "  '  He  '  is  firing 
straight  through  everything,"  said  one  Russian  soldier  to 
another.  "  His  shells  even  go  over  us  into  the  bay." 
With  all  the  horrors  of  war  in  the  foreground,  in  the  back- 
ground the  bay  had  hitherto  lain  calm  and  in  peace,  with 
its  forest  of  masts,  the  English  and  French  fleets  in  the 
offing ;  and  in  Sebastopol  itself  were  the  white  batteries,  the 
barracks,  the  aqueduct,  the  public  buildings. 

Touching  pictures  of  life  in  Sebastopol  during  the  siege 
may  be  found  in  a  little  volume  written  by  Count  Lyof 
Tolstoi  immediately  after  the  time  treated  of,  but  trans- 
lated into  English  only  a  few  years  since,  and  not,  I  imagine, 
very  widely  known.  The  book  is  called  simply  "Sebas- 
topol," and  is  the  first  work  that  brought  Tolstoi  into 
notice  in  Russia. 

I  have  said  little  as  yet  of  the  change  of  commanders. 
Perhaps  the  most  surprising  thing  about  the  Crimean  War 
was  its  lack  of  generalship.  The  soldiers  of  the  allied 


156       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

armies  were  brought  face  to  face  with  heights,  redoubts, 
divisions  of  the  enemy,  and  told  to  assault  them,  to  repulse 
them,  or  to  cut  their  way  through  them,  and  they  did  so ; 
but  no  English  general  showed  generalship,  though  Lord 
Raglan  had  many  other  noble  qualities.  No  French  general 
showed  generalship.  General  Bosquet  (afterwards  dis- 
placed) seems  to  have  been  the  ablest  among  them.  Still 
less  did  any  of  the  Russian  generals  distinguish  themselves, 
(if  we  except  their  young  general  of  engineers,  General 
Todleben,  who  was  a  German).  The  most  distinguished 
looking  general  was  General  La  Marmora,  who  with  his 
five  thousand  Sardinian  soldiers,  arrived  early  in  the  spring 
to  join  the  allied  army. 

The  Sardinians  were  not  fighting  from  any  hatred  to  the 
Russians.  They  were  there  to  win  for  their  little  Piedmont 
a  place  among  the  nations  of  western  Europe.  Their 
valor  was  to  form  a  stepping-stone  for  regenerated  Italy. 
They  commanded  general  admiration,  but  their  ranks  were 
sorely  thinned  by  the  cholera.  Among  its  victims  was  the 
beloved  elder  brother  of  their  general.  The  Turks  were 
made  far  less  account  of  than  the  Sardinians.  Even  Omar 
Pasha,  who  came  with  his  gallant  little  army  from  the 
Danube  in  this  spring  of  1855,  was  thrust  into  the  back- 
ground. Lord  Raglan  could  not  fail  to  remember  that 
Turks,  in  his  first  encounter  with  the  Russians  before  Sebas- 
topol,  had  lost  him  six  guns. 

But  to  return  to  the  generals.  Saint-Arnaud  died  in 
November,  1854.  He  was  succeeded  by  General  Canro- 
bert.  Canrobert  was  not  general  enough  for  the  place. 
The  Emperor  Napoleon  III.  had  tried  to  get  back  some  of 
the  grand  old  African  generals  whom  he  had  insulted  and 
outraged  in  1851  by  imprisoning  them  at  Mazas ;  but  they 
one  and  all  replied  that  they  would  not  serve  him  against 
a  foreign  foe,  though  if  ever  he  needed  their  swords  to 
defend  France  he  might  count  upon  their  willingness  to 
draw  them. 

Canrobert,  after  some  months  of  experience,  arrived  at 


THE   CRIMEAN  WAR. 


'57 


the  conclusion  that  the  commander- in-chief  of  the  allied 
armies  should  be  one  and  indivisible.  He  returned  to 
France  in  the  spring  of  1855,  and  expressed  this  opinion 
to  his  emperor.  Lord  Raglan  therefore  retained  the 
supreme  command ;  no  new  French  commander-in-chief 
was  appointed,  but  General  Pelissier,  the  same  who  had 
distinguished  himself  in  Africa,  both  by  his  fighting  quali- 
ties and  by  smothering  his  enemies,  was  made  general  of 
the  French  forces.  Canrobert  had  returned  to  Paris  shortly 
before  Queen  Victoria's  visit  to  the  French  emperor  in  the 
spring  of  1855  ;  we  read  of  him  as  sitting  next  to  her  at 
dinner,  having  just  come,  as  he  said,  "  from  the  trenches," 
and  telling  her  stories  of  her  soldiers,  whom  he  greatly 
admired,  and  of  the  vicissitudes  of  the  war. 

The  Mamelon,  as  I  have  said,  was  a  little  round  green 
hill,  five  hundred  yards  in  advance  of  the  Malakoff  redoubt, 
with  which  it  was  connected  by  trenches.  On  June  7  an 
attack  was  made  upon  it  by  the  French.  "  The  Zouaves," 
says  an  English  officer,  "  went  up  like  hounds."  In  seven 
minutes  and  a  half  they  were  inside  the  works,  but  were 
driven  out  again.  They  attacked  it  a  second  time.  Then 
the  Russians  spiked  their  guns  and  retired,  as  it  were,  by 
the  back  door.  It  was  not  until  daybreak  that  the  French 
could  feel  sure  of  their  prize.  The  next  day  there  was  an 
armistice  to  bury  the  dead.  Here  is  an  account  of  it  as 
told  by  Count  Tolstoi.  His  account  is  very  nearly  the 
same  as  that  by  Mr.  Russell,  the  English  war  correspondent, 
which,  however,  is  not  so  picturesque  as  that  by  the  Russian 
writer :  — 

"  White  flags  are  flying  on  our  fortifications,  and  on  the 
French  intrenchments.  In  the  blossom-covered  valley  mutilated 
bodies  clothed  in  blue  or  gray,  with  bare  feet,  lie  in  heaps,  and 
men  are  carrying  them  off  to  place  them  in  carts.  The  air  is 
poisoned  by  the  odor  of  the  corpses.  Crowds  of  people  pour 
out  of  Sebastopol  and  out  of  the  French  camp,  to  witness  this 
spectacle.  The  different  sides  meet  each  other  on  this  ground 
with  gifts  and  courtesies,  and  kindly  curiosity.  '  What  a  miser- 
able work  we  are  carrying  on,'  says  a  Russian  to  a  French 


158       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY, 

officer ;  and  eager  to  carry  on  the  conversation,  he  continues, 
'It  was  hot  last  night,  was  it  not  ? ' —  pointing  to  the  corpses. 
4  Oh !  monsieur,  it  is  frightful.  But  what  fine  fellows  your 
Russian  soldiers  are  !  It  is  a  pleasure  to  fight  such  fellows  as 
that.'  '  It  must  be  owned  your  fellows  are  up  to  the  mark 
too,'  replies  the  Russian  cavalry-man,  with  a  salute.  Yes  !  flags 
float  over  the  bastions,  and  on  the  intrenchments,  the  brilliantly 
shining  sun  is  setting  in  the  blue  waters  which  ripple  and 
sparkle  beneath  its  golden  rays.  Thousands  of  people  as- 
semble, look  at  each  other,  chat,  and  laugh.  People  who  are 
Christians,  who  profess  to  obey  the  great  law  of  love,  are  look- 
ing at  their  own  work,  and  do  not  think  of  falling  on  their 
knees  to  repent  before  Him  who  gave  them  life,  and  with  life 
has  implanted  the  dread  of  death,  and  the  love  of  the  good  and 
beautiful.  They  do  not  embrace  each  other  like  brothers,  and 
shed  tears  of  joy  and  happiness.  Well,  we  Russians  must  at 
least  take  consolation  in  the  thought  that  we  did  not  begin  the 
war,  and  are  only  defending  our  country  !  The  white  flags  are 
lowered ;  the  engines  of  death  and  suffering  thunder  again. 
Once  more  a  flood  of  innocent  blood  is  shed,  and  groans  and 
curses  again  rise  up  from  earth  to  heaven." 

The  great  attack  on  the  Malakoff  and  the  Redan,  the 
two  most  important  redoubts  was  to  take  place  on  June  18, 
the  anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Waterloo.  The  English 
were  to  attack  the  Redan,  the  French  the  Malakoff.  The 
French,  having  taken  the  Mamelon  Vert,  were  much  nearer 
to  the  Malakoff  than  the  English  to  the  Redan. 

The  English  attack  was  led  on  by  Colonel  Gwilt,  a  brave 
and  gallant  officer,  but  scaling  ladders  had  not  been  pro- 
vided. '  The  attack  failed  on  the  Redan ;  the  French  failed 
too  at  the  Malakoff. 

The  disappointment  in  the  camp  was  bitter.  All  the 
English  had  been  sure  that  a  sudden  attack  would  carry  the 
Redan.  It  was  evident  that  it  had  not  been  battered 
enough,  or  enough  disabled.  The  only  thing  to  be  done 
was  to  batter  it  some  more. 

But  the  failure  of  the  attack  on  the  i8th  of  June 
broke  Lord  Raglan  down.  He  had  been  vehemently 
assailed  in  Parliament  all  winter,  and  harassed  and  hin- 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  159 

dered  in  every  way.  It  would  seem  as  if  he  had  had 
enough  to  do  to  take  Sebastopol,  but  to  this  was  added  the 
necessity  of  keeping  up  relations  of  amity  with  the  French, 
of  combating  imperative  and  impracticable  ideas  sent  out 
by  the  emperor  Napoleon  (who  at  one  time  was  vehe- 
mently urged  by  his  wife  to  go  out  to  the  Crimea,  and  him- 
self command  his  army),  and  the  necessity  of  parrying 
attacks  at  home,  and  of  bearing  the  pressure  put  upon  him 
by  the  home  ministry. 

He  was  taken  ill  on  the  Tuesday  after  the  i8th  of  June, 
and  died  on  the  Thursday  following  of  cholera,  but  his 
death  was  really  owing  to  an  exhausted  frame,  incapable  of 
resisting  an  attack  of  illness.  His  death  caused  sincere 
grief  to  the  army.  His  body,  with  all  military  honors,  was 
carried  on  board  the  "  Caradoc,"  and  the  command  de- 
volved upon  his  chief- of- staff,  General  James  Simpson,  a 
commonplace,  meritorious,  well-meaning  officer. 

As  the  summer  advanced  sickness  increased  among  the 
men,  and  the  mortality  among  the  generals,  French, 
English,  and  Sardinian,  was  very  great.  Wet  weather 
seemed  to  bring  cholera ;  heat,  dysentery.  Miss  Nightin- 
gale came  to  Balaclava  and  there  reorganized  the  hospitals. 
In  one  day  the  surgeons  made  requisitions  for  six  tons  of 
hospital  supplies. 

The  next  event  was  the  small  battle  of  the  Tchernaya. 
The  allies  won  the  battle,  and  the  Sardinians  distinguished 
themselves. 

All  July  and  August  the  cannonading  and  the  sickness, 
and  the  work  in  the  trenches  went  steadily  on.  One  of 
the  great  torments  of  this  time  was  the  plague  of  flies. 
The  hard-hearted  Pharaoh  and  his  people  could  not  have 
been  more  beset  by  them.  They  did  not,  like  other  flies, 
go  to  rest  at  night,  and  the  sick  suffered  terribly  from  this 
plague,  while  the  well  were  all  night  distracted  by  it. 

Lord  Palmerston  was  by  this  time  prime  minister  of  Eng- 
land, and  he  sent  out  a  sanitary  commission  to  report  upon 
the  state  of  the  encampment.  But  it  was  "  a  far  cry  "  from 


l6o       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

sending  a  commission  three  thousand  miles  to  report,  and 
the  means  of  getting  the  evils  it  reported  remedied.  How- 
ever, the  improvement  in  everything  had  been  great  since 
the  winter,  and  heat  may  more  easily  be  borne  than  cold. 

When  one  thinks  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  Crimea  it 
is  sometimes  hard  to  say  who  were  the  besiegers,  which 
were  the  besieged.  The  allied  armies,  especially  the  Eng- 
lish, lay  hemmed  in  between  the  fortifications  of  Sebas- 
topol  and  a  Russian  army.  This  army  held  the  heights  of 
Inkerman  and  all  the  north  side  of  Sebastopol  or  Sever- 
naya,  with  its  great  Star  Fort.  Severnaya  was  connected 
with  the  city  by  a  bridge  of  boats. 

On  Sept.  5,  1855,  the  allies  again  attacked  the  Redan 
and  the  Malakoff.  With  their  superior  cannon  they  had 
succeeded  in  destroying  many  of  the  guns  in  those  re- 
doubts, and  in  shattering  much  of  their  masonry.  All 
summer  the  French  had  been  pushing  their  lines  of  trenches 
from  the  Mamelon  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  Malakoff, 
so  that  by  Sept.  5  they  were  only  two  hundred  yards 
from  it.  The  English  had  a  very  much  longer  distance  to 
charge  over  in  the  open  to  reach  the  Redan,  and  that  dis- 
tance was  commanded  by  batteries  placed  in  certain  stone 
quarries,  which  were  held  by  the  Russians.  For  that  rea- 
son, and  because  of  the  stony  nature  of  the  ground,  it  had 
been  impossible  to  advance  the  English  trenches  nearer  to 
the  point  of  attack. 

We  all  know  the  result.  The  French  captured  the  Mala- 
koff; the  English  did  «^/take  the  Redan.  They  were  pre- 
paring to  renew  the  attack  the  next  morning  when  they 
found  that  there  was  no  enemy  to  oppose  them.  Sebas- 
topol, —  that  is,  its  southern  portion  —  had  been  abandoned 
during  the  night.  General  Todleben  did  not  choose  to 
waste  life  in  defending  a  place  no  longer  tenable.  He  had 
stolen  away  across  the  bridge  of  boats.  All  the  army  of 
Russia  was  now  concentrated  at  Severnaya.  Never  was 
anything  more  masterly.  But  Count  Tolstoi,  who  was  there, 
shall  tell  us  about  the  attack  on  the  Malakoff  and  the  mid- 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  l6l 

night  retreat,  which  surprised  the  Russian  soldiers  as  much 
as  it  did  the  allies  :  — 

"  Two  Russian  officers  in  the  middle  of  Sept.  5  stood  on  Tele- 
graph Hill,  a  high  spot  within  the  Russian  lines  in  the  Northern 
quarter  of  Sebastopol.  The  sun  gleamed  down  on  the  bay,  the 
sea  was  covered  with  ships  at  anchor,  the  water  rippled  and 
danced  merrily  under  the  sun's  rays.  A  light  breeze  rilled  the 
sails  of  small  boats  plying  in  the  harbor.  There  stood  Sebas- 
topol seen  from  the  heights,  apparently  little  changed  by  all  it 
had  undergone  during  the  siege,  with  its  unfinished  church,  its 
monuments,  its  quay,  its  boulevard,  which  looked  like  a  band  of 
green  passed  over  the  hill,  its  elegant  library  building,  its  little 
basins  in  the  harbor,  its  forest  of  masts,  its  picturesque  aque- 
ducts, while  over  all  floated  clouds  of  bluish  tint  made  by  the 
powder-smoke,  which  from  time  to  time  were  lighted  up  by  the 
red  flame  from  the  firing.  On  the  horizon,  where  the  smoke  of 
a  steamer  traced  a  black  line,  white  lines  of  cloud  were  rising, 
precursors  of  a  wind-storm.  Along  the  whole  line  of  the  forti- 
fications, but  especially  on  the  heights  toward  the  left,  spurted 
swift  vivid  flashes  of  light,  though  it  was  broad  daylight,  fol- 
lowed by  plumes  of  white  smoke,  which  assuming  various  forms, 
rose,  extended,  covered  the  sky  with  sombre,  hazy  tints.  These 
jets  of  smoke  came  forth  on  all  sides,  —  from  the  hills,  from  the 
hostile  batteries  of  the  allies,  and  from  the  city.  The  noises  of 
the  firing  shook  the  air  with  a  continuous  roar.  Toward  noon 
these  smoke-puffs  became  rarer  and  rarer,  and  the  changes  of 
color  in  the  haze  less  frequent.  '  Do  you  notice  that  the  Second 
Bastion  is  no  longer  replying  ?  '  said  the  huzzar  officer  on  horse- 
back to  his  comrade.  *  It  must  have  been  silenced.  It  is  terri- 
ble !'  'Yes;  and  the  Malakoff  has  slackened  fire,'  the  other 
answered.  He  was  looking  through  his  field  glass.  *  They  are 
firing  straight  on  the  Kornikoff  battery,  and  that  too  is  not  reply- 
ing.' '  You  will  see,'  said  the  other,  '  I  was  right ;  toward  noon 
they  will  cease  firing.  It  is  always  so.  Let  us  go  down  to 
breakfast.'  '  Wait  —  hush  ! '  the  other  man  replied,  with  agita- 
tion in  his  voice,  still  looking  through  his  glass.  There  was  a  move- 
ment in  the  trenches.  *  They  are  advancing  in  close  column  ! '  he 
cried.  *  See  there !  —  see  !  how  they  come  out  of  the  trenches !  * 
Both  officers  could  in  fact  see  with  the  naked  eye  black  spots 
going  down  the  hill  into  the  ravine,  and  proceeding  from  the 
French  batteries  toward  the  Russian  bastions.  In  the  fore- 
ground, in  front  of  the  French  batteries,  black  spots,  very  near 

ii 


1 62       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

their  own  lines,  could  be  seen  by  the  Russian  officers.  Sud- 
denly from  different  parts  of  the  Malakoff  spurted  white  plumes 
of  smoke,  and  vivid  flashes,  while  a  lively  fusillade  could  be 
heard,  like  the  patter  of  heavy  rain  on  window  panes.  The 
French  lines  advanced  toward  the  Malakoff  wrapped  in  smoke, 
drawing  nearer  and  nearer.  The  fusillade  increased  in  vio- 
lence, the  smoke  belched  out  at  shorter  and  at  shorter  intervals, 
extending  rapidly  along  the  line  in  a  long  light-lilac  colored 
cloud.  All  noises  mingled  together  in  one  continuous  roar. 
'It  is  an  assault,'  said  the  officer,  pale  with  emotion,  as  he 
handed  his  glass  to  his  companion.  Cossacks  and  officers  on 
horseback  were  seen  galloping  along  the  road,  preceding  the 
commander-in-chief  in  his  carriage.  All  faces  expressed  pain- 
ful emotion.  '  It  is  impossible  they  can  take  the  Malakoff ! ' 
cried  the  officer  on  horseback.  *  God  in  heaven  !  Look  now. 
See  the  flag!'  cried  the  other,  taking  his  eyes  from  the  glass. 
1  The  French  flag/  he  exclaimed,  choked  with  emotion,  l  is  fly- 
ing from  the  Malakoff ! '  4  Impossible  ! '  exclaimed  the  other." 

The  attack  had  been  a  surprise  to  the  soldiers  in  the 
Malakoff.  Those  who  had  been  all  night  in  the  trenches 
were  resting  in  the  stifling  bomb-proofs  of  the  redoubt, 
while  the  sailors  worked  the  guns. 

"Toward  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,"  continues  Count 
Tolstoi,  "all  the  soldiers  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  Sebastopol 
were  crossing  the  harbor,  some  by  the  bridge  of  boats,  and 
some  in  steamers.  The  firing  had  ceased  everywhere.  Stars 
sparkled  in  the  sky  as  they  had  done  the  night  before,  but  a 
strong  wind  was  blowing  and  the  bay  was  rough.  From  some 
of  the  redoubts  flames  flashed  up  close  to  the  earth,  preceding 
explosions  that  shook  the  ground,  and  sent  stones  and  black 
objects  of  strange  shapes  into  the  air.  Something  near  the 
docks  was  on  fire,  and  a  red  flame  was  reflected  on  the  water. 
The  bridge  of  boats,  covered  with  people,  was  lighted  by  fires 
from  the  Nicholas  battery.  A  great  sheet  of  flame  seemed  to 
spread  over  the  water ;  it  lighted  up  the  under  side  of  a  cloud 
of  smoke  which  hovered  over  it.  As  on  the  preceding  evening, 
the  lights  of  the  hostile  fleet  sparkled  far  out  to  sea,  calm  and 
defiant.  *  See  !  they  have  burned  our  barracks ! '  cries  a  soldier, 
sighing.  '  How  many  of  our  people  are  dead,  —  and  dead  to 
no  purpose,  for  the  French  have  got  possession  ! '  «  Do  you 
think  they  will  long  enjoy  it  ?  Do  you  think  they  will  lead  an 


THE  CRIMEAN   WAR.  163 

easy  life  there  ? '  cries  another  soldier.  *  Wait  a  bit ;  we  will  take 
all  our  redoubts  back  again.  We  may  lose  more  men,  but,  as 
sure  as  God  is  holy,  if  the  emperor  orders  it,  we  will  get  back 
everything.  Do  you  think  things  have  been  left  as  they  were 
in  Sebastopol  ?  They  will  find  nothing  but  naked  walls.  The 
fortifications  are  blown  up.  He  has  planted  his  flag  on  the 
Malakoff,  it  is  true,  but  he  won't  dare  to  go  into  the  city.  Give 
us  time  !  Give  us  time ! '  Along  the  whole  line  of  the  defences  of 
Sebastopol,  where  for  nearly  twelve  months  ardent  and  energetic 
life  had  been  active,  there  was  not  left  one  single  living  soul. 
The  walls,  the  works,  the  timbers  were  all  falling  with  a  din. 
Torn  by  a  recent  explosion,  crushed  bodies  of  French  and 
Russians  lay  under  broken  beams;  heavy  cannon,  overturned 
into  the  moat  by  terrible  force,  lay  half-buried  in  the  earth, 
forever  dumb.  Bombs,  balls,  splinters  of  beams  lay  every- 
where. The  bomb-proofs  were  rent  open,  and  corpses,  in  blue 
or  gray  overcoats,  were  lighted  up  by  the  red  explosions  that 
every  instant  shot  into  the  air.  The  army  of  Sebastopol,  like  a 
sea  whose  liquid  mass,  agitated  and  uneasy,  spreads  and  over- 
flows its  banks  after  some  great  commotion,  moved  slowly  in 
the  midnight  into  the  impenetrable  gloom,  undulating  over  the 
bridge  that  crossed  the  bay,  proceeding  toward  Severnaya, 
leaving  behind  the  places  where  so  many  brave  men  had  fallen 
during  eleven  months'  defence  against  an  enemy  twice  as  strong 
as  the  garrison  of  the  besieged  city, *  in  obedience  to  an  order, 
received  that  very  day,  to  retire  without  more  fighting.  The 
first  impression  made  by  this  order  weighed  heavily  upon  the 
Russians'  hearts ;  then  fear  of  pursuit  became  their  dominant 
feeling.  The  soldiers,  accustomed  for  so  many  months  to  fight 
in  the  strongholds  they  were  abandoning,  felt  themselves  with- 
out shelter  as  they  quitted  them.  Uneasily  they  crowded 
together  in  masses  at  the  entrance  to  the  bridge,  which  was 
lifted  up  and  down  by  violent  gusts  of  wind.  Though  the 
attention  of  each  man  was  distracted  by  a  thousand  details, 
the  impulse  of  self-preservation  was  now  strongest  everywhere, 
the  desire  to  fly  as  soon  as  possible  from  that  fatal  spot. 
Arrived  at  the  end  of  the  bridge  each  soldier,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  removed  his  hat  and  crossed  himself.  But  besides 
this  feeling  was  another,  deeper,  more  poignant,  a  feeling  akin 
to  repentance,  to  shame,  to  hatred ;  for  it  was  with  inexpressible 

1  Count  Tolstoi  makes  no  account  of  the  Army  of  the  Crimea 
which  hemmed  in  the  besiegers  on  the  land  side. 


1 64      ROSS! A  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XfXr/f  CENTURY. 

bitterness  of  heart  that  each  man  sighed,  and  uttered  threats 
against  the  enemy,  and  as  he  reached  the  north  side  cast  a  last 
look  upon  abandoned  Sebastopol." 

All  this  happened  on  the  night  of  September  5,  1855,  and 
with  the  abandonment  of  Sebastopol  the  war  may  be  said 
to  have  been  over.  It  had  been  the  intention  of  the  Rus- 
sians to  blow  up  the  whole  city,  but  happily  the  destruction 
was  less  than  they  had  planned. 

There  was  no  armistice  until  February  28,  when  a  month's 
truce,  while  plenipotentiaries  deliberated  on  terms  of  peace, 
was  given.  The  allied  armies,  under  Generals  Pelissier  and 
Simpson,  went  again  into  winter  quarters.  They  did  not 
dare  to  encamp  in  Sebastopol,  for  it  was  all  in  ruins,  and 
for  many  a  day  after  it  was  deserted  it  was  liable  to  terrible 
explosions.  The  moment  the  last  soldier  or  inhabitant  had 
crossed  the  bridge  of  boats  to  Severnaya  the  boats  had 
been  disconnected  and  floated  away.  About  sixty  drunken 
soldiers  were  made  prisoners  in  Sebastopol,  and  a  consider- 
able number  of  sick  and  wounded  were  in  the  hospitals  in 
a  dreadful  condition.  Of  course,  skirmishing  went  on  all 
winter,  and  the  Russians  in  their  turn  from  the  Star  Fort 
bombarded  Sebastopol,  but  little  was  done  except  by  a 
naval  expedition  sent  to  capture  the  forts  that  guarded  the 
Isthmus  of  Perekop,  which  unites  the  Crimea  with  southern 
Russia.  There  was  also  the  brilliant  episode  of  the  defence 
of  Kars  in  Asia  Minor,  where  the  Turkish  garrison  was  com- 
manded by  a  young  English  officer,  Captain  Williams. 

Peace  at  last  was  signed  in  Paris. 

The  last  Englishman  killed  in  Sebastopol  perished  while 
trying  to  escape  after  firing  a  mine  that  was  to  bring  down 
an  unsafe  building  ;  the  last  Frenchman  was  killed  in  a  duel 
with  a  brother  officer.  ,- 

The  last  corps  of  English  embarked  at  Balaclava  July  1 2, 
1856;  the  last  Frenchmen  a  few  days  later.  The  armies 
had  accumulated  the  incredible  number  of  twenty-eight 
thousand  camp  followers,  for  whose  transportation  their 
governments  had  also  to  provide. 


THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  165 

Queen  Victoria  reviewed  and  decorated  her  returned 
soldiers.  It  was  a  campaign  of  glory  to  soldiers,  not  to 
generals,  and  few  of  the  latter  received  any  honors.  The 
most  brilliant  officer,  I  should  say,  had  been  Sir  Colin 
Campbell,  afterward  covered  with  glory  at  Lucknow; 
and  Chinese  Gordon  was  there,  a  very  efficient  officer  but 
as  yet  unknown  to  history.  General  Pelissier  was  made 
marshal  of  France,  and  Duke  of  MalakorT,  and  was 
subsequently  appointed  ambassador  to  England  by  his 
emperor. 

It  is  said  that  when  England  goes  into  a  war  and  comes 
out  of  it  victorious  her  first  act  is  to  surrender  to  somebody 
else  all  that  she  had  fought  for ;  and  very  small  were  her 
gains  in  the  Crimean  War,  in  comparison  to  her  losses  and 
expenses.  Russia  was  compelled  to  demolish  her  fortresses 
on  the  Black  Sea,  to  open  that  sea  to  the  trade  of  Western 
Europe,  to  agree  that  no  war  vessels  should  pass  the  Dar- 
danelles or  Bosphorus;  and  Turkey  made  promises  (on 
paper)  that  Christians  should  be  admitted  to  equal  rights 
with  Mussulmans  in  her  European  dominions.  But  the 
signature  of  a  sultan  or  his  representative  is  powerless 
against  the  set  of  public  opinion,  the  ancient  traditions  of 
a  haughty  race,  and  the  authority  of  the  Koran.  The 
autonomy  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  was  confirmed,  and 
they  were  made  into  a  principality,  with  Prince  Charles  of 
Hohenzollern  as  their  ruler. 

The  Sardinians  gained  the  recognition  and  the  position 
they  had  fought  for.  The  French  emperor  gained  the 
English  alliance,  and  his  complete  admission  into  the  circle 
of  European  royalties,  to  which  it  may  be  said  Queen  Vic- 
toria introduced  him  as  her  good  friend  and  ally.  But 
England  —  what  had  she  ? 

Russia  was  weakened,  and  the  dangerous  classes  have 
profited  by  that  weakness  to  make  her  the  festering  sore 
upon  the  body  politic  of  Europe.  She  was  left  isolated  and 
angry,  and  ever  since  has  been  making  such  advances  in 
Asia  that  when  she  is  ready  some  day  she  may  harass 


1 66     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

England  in  her  Indian  possessions.  As  to  France,  she 
looks  now-a-days  to  Russia  as  her  ally,  and  should  the 
often  predicted  war  with  Germany  break  out,  it  will  be 
France  and  Russia,  against  that  very  Austria  and  Prussia 
who  refused  to  take  sides  in  the  Crimean  War. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    EMPEROR- LIBERATOR,    AND    HIS   REFORMS. 

THE  Emperor  Nicholas,  notwithstanding  his  stem  char- 
acter and  all  the  hard  names  it  was  the  fashion  in 
England  to  call  him,  was  a  true  lover  of  his  country.  He 
said  on  his  deathbed  to  Alexander,  his  son  and  heir :  "  Save 
your  country.  All  my  care,  all  my  efforts  have  been  directed 
to  the  good  of  Russia.  I  desired  to  take  upon  myself  all 
the  dangers,  all  the  difficulties,  so  that  I  might  leave  you 
an  empire  tranquil,  well-organized,  and  happy.  Provi- 
dence has  decided  otherwise,  for  at  what  a  time,  and  under 
what  circumstances,  am  I  dying !  You  will  find  your  way 
difficult ! " 

He  had  indeed  left  to  his  country  a  heritage  of  woe.  He 
had  tried  to  gather  the  fruit  he  coveted,  and  it  proved 
beyond  his  reach ;  he  had  miscalculated  obstacles ;  he  had 
relied  on  a  military  organization  that  had  proved  imperfect, 
and  he  had  met  a  fall  almost  as  disastrous  for  Russia  as 
Sedan  was  afterwards  for  France.  His  empire,  exhausted 
by  the  war,  was  morally  as  well  as  materially  a  wreck ;  his 
treasury  was  empty;  his  navy  self- destroyed ;  hostile  war- 
vessels  were  cruising  in  his  waters.  An  hour  of  great  dark- 
ness had  fallen  on  the  empire  when  Alexander  II.  mounted 
the  Russian  throne. 

As  soon  as  possible  Alexander,  with  the  prudence  shown 
afterwards  by  M.  Thiers,  made  peace  with  the  invaders. 
Nor  were  the  terms  very  hard.  England's  demands  on  a 
brave  foe  are  never  excessive.  The  Emperor  Napoleon  III. 
was  weary  of  the  war,  which  had  lasted  too  long  to  please 


1 68       RUSSIA  AND   TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

one  whose  policy  was  based  upon  surprises  ;  and  the  moment 
peace  was  made,  the  new  Russian  emperor  devoted  himself 
to  the  task  of  consolidating  and  regenerating  his  empire. 
It  is  said  that  his  desire  to  reform  had  been  stimulated  by  his 
perusal  of  the  early  novels  of  Tourguenieff. 

Russia  was  at  that  time  "  filled  with  antiquated  ideas  and 
absurd  traditions,  conflicting  prejudices,  and  opposing  in- 
terests. She  had  millions  of  serfs  and  but  few  schools, 
miserable  high-roads,  and  only  six  hundred  miles  of  rail- 
road." 

At  home  and  abroad  everything  was  in  ruins ;  not  only 
the  military  system,  but  the  administrative  system  of  the 
State  had  given  way  under  the  strain. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  II.  was  born  in  1818,  one  year 
before  Queen  Victoria.  His  father,  the  Grand  Duke 
Nicholas,  shortly  before  his  birth  had  been  in  England, 
and  had  charmed  the  Princess  Charlotte  by  his  good  looks 
and  his  good  manners  when  he  visked  her  at  Claremont. 

At  the  time  of  Alexander's  birth  neither  his  father  nor 
himself  had  any  prospect  of  ascending  the  Russian  throne. 
Alexander  I.  had  had  no  children,  but  his  next  heir  was 
his  brother  Constantine,  whose  renunciation  of  hereditary 
royalty  that  he  might  marry  a  Polish  wife  no  one  could  have 
anticipated. 

Alexander  II.  far  more  resembled  his  uncle  Alexander 
"  the  Blessed  "  than  the  stern  autocrat  his  father.  It  is 
said  that  his  mild  disposition  was  a  great  disappointment 
and  annoyance  to  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  and  that  it  cost 
him  many  a  whipping  from  the  imperial  hand.  His  next 
brother,  Constantine,  was  made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  ven- 
tured, when  they  were  grown  to  manhood,  to  flout  and  to 
annoy  his  elder  brother. 

There  is  an  anecdote  told  in  the  books  of  the  time  of  how 
the  Emperor  Nicholas  was  roused  one  day  from  his  writing- 
table  by  a  noise  in  the  nursery,  in  the  midst  of  which  he 
could  distinguish  the  words  "  Oh,  don't!"  and  "Have 
mercy  !  "  He  found  his  heir  the  czarevitch  on  his  back,  and 


EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  II. 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.       169 

his  brother  Constantino  tightening  a  string  around  his  throat, 
while  the  other  four  children  stood  around.  On  inquiring 
the  meaning  of  this  scene,  he  was  told  that  they  were  play- 
ing at  the  murder  of  their  grandfather  the  Emperor  Paul. 
Nicholas  at  once  punished  the  younger  ones  for  any  such 
amusement,  and  the  czarevitch  for  having  shrieked  for 
mercy,  which  he  said  was  unbecoming  in  a  future  czar. 

Alexander,  for  thirty- seven  years  of  his  life,  was  treated 
as  of  no  political  importance.  He  was  put  into  the  army 
when  a  mere  babe,  and  at  ten  years  of  age  was  made  Hett- 
man  of  the  Cossacks.  From  that  time  his  education  was 
entrusted  to  the  strictest  disciplinarians  that  could  be  found 
among  the  officers  of  the  guards.  Only  once  did  he  obtain 
a  tutor  to  whom  he  could  attach  himself,  and  he  was  soon 
removed  for  "  liberalism."  His  other  instructors  treated 
him  with  such  severity  that  he  cherished  a  dread  and  aver- 
sion for  them,  even  after  he  had  grown  to  manhood  and 
was  married. 

His  marriage  took  place  when  he  was  twenty-three.  His 
bride  was  the  princess  Marie  of  Darmstadt,  aunt  to  the 
Prince  Louis,  who  was  husband  of  the  Princess  Alice  of 
England.  Princess  Marie  was  a  good  woman,  who  bore 
her  husband  several  children,  but  after  the  death  of  her 
eldest  son  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  she  fell  into  such  bad 
health  that  she  found  it  impossible  to  live  or  breathe  in 
St.  Petersburg. 

Till  Alexander  was  thirty  years  old  he  was  absolutely 
nothing  but  his  stern  father's  aide-de-camp.  His  duty  was 
to  follow  him  wherever  he  went,  at  home,  abroad,  in  the 
night-time  to  a  fire,  in  the  daytime  to  a  review.  When 
the  Grand  Duke  Michael  died  (the  Emperor  Nicholas's 
youngest  brother,  who  was  very  much  of  a  savage)  the 
czarevitch  succeeded  to  some  of  his  posts,  among  others 
to  the  superintendence  of  the  military  colleges.  In  this 
position  he  soon  made  himself  greatly  beloved  by  the  boys, 
though  old  men  of  his  father's  school  shook  their  heads  at 
every  relaxation  of  the  severity  of  military  discipline. 


I/O      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1X?»  CENTURY. 

The  love  that  Alexander  acquired  in  those  days  by  his 
acts  of  consideration  and  kindness  stood  him  in  good  stead 
when  engaged  in  his  reforms ;  for,  though  the  old  military 
officers  were  against  him,  he  had  with  him  the  younger 
men. 

A  writer  in  the  "British  Quarterly  Review,"  speaking  of 
Alexander  a  few  years  before  his  death,  says :  — 

"  The  slightest,  almost  imperceptible  breach  of  regulation  in 
military  uniform  often  led  under  Nicholas  to  the  cashiering  of  a 
meritorious  officer,  while  almost  the  first  thing  Alexander  did 
on  ascending  the  throne  was  to  allow  smoking,  and  to  make  the 
military  dress  as  comfortable  and  as  easy  as  possible.  Nicholas 
used  to  interfere  in  the  smallest  details  connected  with  every- 
body in  his  dominions ;  an  officer  or  official  wishing  to  marry 
was  bound  to  write  to  his  emperor.  The  smallest  sentence  of 
a  magistrate  had  to  be  submitted  for  his  approval,  and  every 
trifling  item  of  local  news  in  St.  Petersburg  was  each  day 
reported  to  him.  Alexander  put  an  end  to  almost  all  these 
absurdities  as  soon  as  the  necessary  reverence  to  the  memory 
of  his  father  would  permit.  When  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
introduce  a  reform  of  any  kind  he  summoned  a  committee  of 
old  and  new  men  to  consider  it.  If  they  could  not  agree  he 
would  send  them  an  order  to  be  quicker,  or  would  fix  a  date  by 
which  time  the  work  was  to  be  done.  But  he  expected  it  would 
be  finished  in  a  way  to  follow  out  his  own  ideas.  There  were 
times  when  he  could  take  a  sterner  attitude.  He  had  a  way  of 
letting  his  ideas  (which  were  those  of  modern  progress)  Russify 
themselves,  if  we  may  coin  a  word ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  his 
reign  all  young  Russia  was  wildly  enthusiastic  and  hopeful  as 
to  the  changes  he  inaugurated.  In  the  end  many  were  disap- 
pointed, when  the  great  reforms  failed  to  produce  such  imme- 
diate results  as  they  had  hoped." 

Nevertheless,  during  the  twenty-seven  years  of  his  reign  a 
marvellous  amount  of  reform  was  set  on  foot,  though  most 
of  it,  thus  far,  has  apparently  failed  to  accomplish  its  desired 
end. 

"  Alexander  was  a  despot,  he  could  not  be  otherwise,  but 
he  was  a  kind-hearted,  liberal-minded  man.  There  was  a 
great  contrast  between  him  and  the  stern,  stiff,  sergeant- 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      IJl 

major-like  bearing  of  his  father.  Every  inch  of  him 
bespoke  the  well-bred  nobleman,  very  rich,  very  good- 
tempered,  affectionate  to  his  children,  a  man  fond  of  a 
good  dinner,  of  shooting,  of  hunting,  and  of  making  every- 
body comfortable,  himself  included." 

But  to  return  to  the  first  days  of  his  reign,  and  his 
earliest  reforms.  "  No  Russian,"  says  a  Russian  writer  in 
1 88 1,  "asserts  that  the  work  of  reform  in  Russia  is  com- 
plete. Of  course  there  is  still  very  much  to  be  done.  One 
reason  for  which  we  deplore  Nihilist  outrages  is  because 
they  postpone  reforms." 

As  soon  as  peace  had  been  declared,  and  the  war  in  the 
Crimea  was  brought  to  a  close,  the  emperor  issued  a  mani- 
festo to  his  people,  one  sentence  in  which  contained  the 
keynote  to  his  policy.  He  hoped,  he  said,  that  "by  the 
combined  efforts  of  the  government  and  the  people,  the 
public  adminstration  would  be  improved,  and  that  justice 
and  mercy  would  reign  in  the  courts  of  law." 

It  was  the  first  time  in  Russian  history  that  the  people 
had  been,  even  verbally,  associated  with  the  government. 

A  year  later,  on  a  visit  to  Moscow  (the  ancient  capital 
of  the  empire),  in  an  address  to  the  Marshals  of  the 
Nobility,  a  sort  of  representative  body  chosen  by  the  nobles 
themselves,  he  spoke  first  on  the  subject  of  serfage.  "  If 
serfdom  is  doomed,"  he  said,  "  it  is  better  that  the  neces- 
sary reform  should  come  from  above  rather  than  from 
below."  He  therefore  urged  them  freely  to  discuss  the 
question  with  their  brother  nobles.  "Every  one  seemed 
pleased,  and  there  was  no  end,"  says  a  Russian,  "  of  ani- 
mated discussions  and  of  brilliant  plans." 

In  1 86 1  the  Emancipation  Act  was  completed,  and  re- 
ceived the  emperor's  signature.  It  gave  liberty  to  twenty- 
three  millions  of  serfs  belonging  to  the  nobles,  in  addition 
to  thirty  millions  set  at  liberty  on  lands  of  the  crown. 

Great  was  the  rejoicing  throughout  Russia,  especially 
among  the  more  enlightened  classes.  They  were  proud  of 
their  country,  proud  of  their  emperor,  proud  of  their  own 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice. 


RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

The  Civil  War  in  the  United  States  began  in  April,  1861  ; 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  in  Russia  preceded  it  by 
about  three  weeks. 

"  Including  crown  peasants,  nearly  half  the  population  of 
Russia  were  serfs ;  yet,  without  a  sword  being  unsheathed, 
the  great  work  was  accomplished ;  by  the  simple  mandate 
of  the  emperor  serfdom  ceased  to  exist  within  the  limits  of 
the  empire." 

This  was  not  done  without  expense  to  the  government. 
The  cost  has  been  estimated  at  five  hundred  million  dollars. 
This  is  one  reason  of  the  present  poverty  of  the  State  Treasury. 
I  am  assuredly  no  apologist  for  the  horrible  condition  of 
Russian  prisons,  as  reported  by  Mr.  Kennan,  but  it  is  only 
fair  to  remember  that  orders  for  new  prisons,  and  for  better 
arrangements  for  exiles  travelling  to  Siberia,  have  long  ago 
been  given,  and  would  have  been  executed  but  for  want  of 
funds. 

To  emancipate  the  peasants  would  have  done  them  little 
good  had  they  been  left  without  resources.  We  remember 
the  day  when  it  was  said  that  every  negro  looked  to  the 
Federal  government  for  "  ten  acres  and  a  mule."  This 
dream  was  in  some  measure  realized  by  the  Russian 
peasantry. 

The  land  system  of  that  country  is  very  singular ;  and  as 
we  cannot  understand  Russian  emancipation  nor  even 
Russian  history  without  knowing  something  about  it,  I 
attempt  an  explanation. 

Russian  government  is  official,  and  as  such  centralized. 
It  is  communistic,  and  as  such  exactly  the  reverse.  As 
official  it  is  founded  on  German  precedents ;  in  the  latter 
case,  on  old  Slavonic  customs  and  ideas. 

Throughout  the  East  of  Europe  the  patriarchal  idea  pre- 
vails. The  head  of  the  family  is  all-powerful  over  his  own 
household.  The  same  idea  created  the  commune.  Each 
village  or  commune  has  its  government,  —  its  Mir.  The 
Mir  is  composed  solely  of  peasants ;  no  nobleman  or 
gentleman  is  admitted.  Its  headman  is  called  a  Volost. 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.       173 

The  Mir  holds  meetings  (much  like  vestry  meetings)  when- 
ever it  thinks  proper,  and  the  head  of  every  family  can  vote 
and  speak  in  them. 

To  each  village  has  been  allotted  a  certain  quantity  of 
land  for  the  use  of  the  former  serfs,  its  inhabitants.  The 
official  tax-collector  for  the  government  looks  to  the  Verlost 
of  each  Mir  for  the  amount  of  taxes  due  by  the  commune 
to  the  State.  The  Mir  distributes  the  communal  land 
among  the  peasants,  and  may  redistribute  it  at  its  own 
pleasure.  It  also  pays  an  annual  sum  to  the  old  proprietor, 
intended  to  purchase  the  land  on  the  instalment  principle. 
The  Mir  supplies  the  quota  of  conscripts  to  be  furnished 
by  its  village  to  the  army.  It  designates  the  time  when 
ploughing,  planting,  and  hay  harvest  may  begin.  It  settles 
disputes,  and  in  small  matters  administers  justice  in  the 
village.  It  has  power  to  send  any  unsatisfactory  villager  to 
Siberia. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  these  powers  may  become  very 
burdensome  to  all  parties.  The  Mir  must  collect  the  taxes, 
whatever  may  be  the  consequences  to  the  community,  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  get  seventeen  dollars  a  year  (which  is  the 
amount  of  the  government  tax)  out  of  every  peasant  land- 
holder. Moreover  if  the  headman  should  lose,  squander, 
or  embezzle  the  money  he  collects,  the  peasants,  when  the 
official  tax-gatherer  comes  round,  may  have  to  pay  it  over 
again.  If  there  should  be  a  deficit,  any  peasant's  horse  or 
cow  may  be  seized  to  make  it  good. 

Again,  every  married  man,  or  widow,  in  the  commune 
must  hold  land.  If  he  or  she  did  not  the  taxes  would  fall 
more  heavily  upon  the  others.  If  any  one  wants  to  leave 
his  village  he  must  make  arrangements  for  paying  his  share 
of  the  taxes  in  some  way  satisfactory  to  the  Mir.  If  his 
payments  fail  he  will  be  summoned  home  by  the  village 
authorities,  and  if  he  refuses  to  obey,  he  will  be  sent  home 
by  the  government  police.  Sometimes  this  is  done  simply 
to  black-mail  a  man  who  prospers  in  the  cities. 

Courts  for  the  trial  of  persons  guilty  of  minor  offences 


1/4      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

can  be  held  by  the  Mir ;  but  it  is  said  that  as  a  rule  deci- 
sions can  be  purchased  by  a  treat  of  strong  liquor. 

Over  the  commune  are  larger  provincial  assemblies  com- 
posed of  both  peasants  and  nobles.  They  began  by  being 
dignified  and  well-conducted ;  but  they  had  so  little  power 
that  they  fell  into  disrepute,  and  at  last  into  disuse. 

No  man  likes  to  hold  office  in  the  Mir.  It  involves  too 
much  annoyance,  unpopularity,  and  responsibility.  The 
better  class  of  peasants  shirk  office  altogether.  The  com- 
munal offices,  therefore,  fall  to  the  worthless  who  are  willing 
to  accept  them. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  land  held  by  the  emancipated 
peasant  is  not  an  absolute  possession.  After  he  has  im- 
proved and  manured  his  holding,  he  is  liable,  on  a  re-dis- 
tribution of  the  land,  to  have  it  fall  to  somebody  else,  while 
he  may  get  for  his  next  allotment  a  barren  waste,  several 
miles  from  his  village.  Besides  this,  family  expenses  have 
increased  under  the  new  system.  In  serf-times  large  fam- 
ilies of  several  generations  dwelt  together ;  now,  as  every 
man  must  hold  land,  he  commonly  feels  himself  compelled 
to  live  within  reasonable  reach  of  it. 

Horses  are  indispensable  to  a  cultivator,  especially  when 
the  proprietor  may  be  under  the  necessity  of  going  a  great 
distance  to  his  daily  labor.  If  a  peasant's  horse  dies,  or  is 
stolen,  or  misfortune  or  unthrift  break  in  on  his  resources, 
he  was  formerly  compelled  to  go  to  the  Jew  money-lender 
(we  have  as  yet  no  means  of  knowing  to  whom  he  resorts 
now).  From  him  he  could  obtain  money  to  buy  another 
horse,  or  to  pay  his  taxes.  The  security  was  so  uncertain 
that  the  usurer  demanded  ruinous  interest,  sometimes  thirty 
per  cent ;  and  this  in  a  great  measure  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  bitter  hatred  to  the  Jewish  race  felt  by  peasants  in 
Russia. 

Russia,  with  reference  to  the  nature  of  its  soil,  is  divided 
into  three  districts  :  the  forest,  or  northern  part ;  the  black 
soil ;  and  the  steppes. 

In  the  black-soil  zone,  which  is  fertile,  populated,  and 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.       175 

provided  with  roads,  emancipation  seemed,  for  twenty  years 
after  it  was  granted,  to  work  well ;  in  the  other  two,  badly. 
The  causes  for  this  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Wallace's  book  on 
Russia  published  in  1879  ;  but  it  is  well  to  know  something 
about  conditions  of  peasant  life  so  different  from  ours,  when 
we  read  the  books  of  Tolstoi,  Tourgenieff,  Gogol,  and  Henri 
GreVille. 

In  reading  Mr.  Wallace's  account  of  the  proprietor's 
views  upon  emancipation,  and  indeed  in  reading  Russian 
stories  that  describe  the  country  life  of  a  Russian  pro- 
prietor, one  is  reminded  of  what  was  taking  place  almost 
simultaneously  on  plantations  in  our  own  country,  while  the 
transition  from  the  Old  South  to  the  New  South  was  in 
progress.  Almost  the  same  difficulties  seem  to  have  beset 
the  Russian  proprietor  and  the  Southern  planter.  But  wealth 
has  poured  into  our  Southern  States,  and  a  large  and  in- 
dustrious population ;  while  no  such  good  fortune  befel  the 
Russian  landowner.  The  Southern  planter  supplied  him- 
self, as  soon  as  his  means  would  permit,  with  agricultural 
machinery,  while  in  Russia  there  seems  to  have  been  little 
attempt  to  pursue  new  agricultural  methods,  and  a  feeling, 
too  often  experienced  in  our  kitchens,  that  "  modern  inven- 
tions "  are  wasted  upon  those  who  have  not  the  persever- 
ance or  the  ability  to  understand  them. 

Again,  when  we  compare  Russian  with  Southern  life,  — 
that  is,  with  life  as  it  existed  on  the  farms  of  old  Virginia, 
—  we  are  struck  by  three  radical  differences :  First,  the 
brutality  of  Russian  manners  toward  inferiors,  in  contrast 
with  the  courtesy  and  kindness  always  enjoined  on  children 
in  good  families  in  the  Southern  States,  in  their  intercourse 
with  household  servants,  whom  it  was  never  considered 
good  taste  to  call  "  slaves."  Secondly,  we  are  struck  by 
the  drinking  and  gambling  of  Russian  masters,  and  the 
brutal  beastly  drunkenness  that  prevailed  (and  prevails  still) 
among  the  laboring  class,  whether  peasants  or  serfs.  Our 
Southern  gentlemen  drank  more  toddy  and  more  juleps  than 
were  good  for  them,  and  once  in  a  while  there  was  an 


i;6      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

incorrigibly  drunken  negro,  but  drunkenness  was  the  excep- 
tion, not  the  rule,  as  it  appears  to  be  in  Russia.  Lastly,  in 
every  Russian  book  one  is  struck  with  the  hopelessness  of 
life  in  Russia.  It  is  as  if  Pandora  had  shaken  out  her  woes 
upon  the  land,  but  forgot  to  add  the  gift  that  was  hidden 
at  the  bottom.  The  negro,  constitutionally  light-hearted, 
looked  forward  to  his  Sundays  and  his  holidays,  to  his 
Whitsuntide  and  Christmas,  to  say  nothing  of  the  frolics 
after  night- fall  in  the  quarter.  The  same  spirit  of  looking 
forward  to  "  a  good  time  coming  "  pervades  his  songs  and 
hymns.  The  Russian  evidently  takes  no  hopefulness  from 
his  religion,  —  it  teaches  him  endurance  ;  his  enjoyment  is 
solely  in  sleep  and  in  vodka.  He  appears  too  lost  to  hope 
to  be  capable  of  aspiration. 

Mr.  Wallace,  writing  in  1875,  savs  :  — 

"  The  great  majority  of  educated  Russians  are  at  present  suf- 
fering from  the  effect  of  shattered  illusions.  During  the  time 
of  the  emancipation  they  indulged  in  the  most  immoderate  ex- 
pectations. They  believed,  with  an  ardor  of  which  only  neo- 
phytes are  capable,  that  Russia  had  discovered  a  new  path  of 
progress  ;  that  in  securing  to  the  peasants  the  land  they  actually 
enjoyed,  and  in  developing  the  communal  institutions  in  the 
direction  of  self-government,  Russia  laid,  so  they  argued,  a  firm 
basis  for  her  future  prosperity.  Grave  doubts  might  be  enter- 
tained as  to  the  future  fate  of  the  landed  proprietors ;  but  there 
could  be  none,  it  was  imagined,  as  to  the  future  of  the  peasants. 
They  would  at  once  change  '  from  head  to  foot.'  Their  new 
position  would  work  in  them  wonders.  As  soon  as  they  felt 
themselves  free  they  would  strive  to  better  their  condition. 
Agriculture  would  be  improved,  the  numbers  of  cattle  would  be 
increased,  the  old  vices  that  had  been  created  and  fostered  by 
serfage  would  disappear,  and  new  institutions  would  develop  a 
healthy  local  life.  In  a  word,  it  was  expected  that  the  eman- 
cipation would  produce  instantaneously  a  complete  transforma- 
tion in  the  life  and  character  of  the  rural  population,  and  that 
the  peasant  would  become  at  once  a  sober,  industrious,  moral 
agriculturist.  These  expectations  were  not  realized.  One  year 
passed,  five  years  passed,  ten  years  passed,  twenty  years  have 
passed,  — and  the  expected  transformation  has  not  taken  place. 
On  the  contrary,  there  have  appeared  certain  very  ugly  phe- 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      177 

nomena  which  were  not  in  the  programme.  The  peasants,  it  is 
said,  began  to  drink  more  and  to  work  less,  and  the  public  life 
which  the  communal  institutions  have  produced  has  not  been  of 
a  desirable  kind.  The  natural  consequence  of  this  is  that  those 
who  had  indulged  in  exaggerated  expectations  sank  into  a  state 
of  inordinate  despondency,  and  imagined  that  things  were  much 
worse  than  they  are.  This  despondency  exists  still,  and  tinges 
strongly  the  commonly  received  opinions  regarding  the  present 
condition  of  the  peasantry." 

Mr.  Wallace's  own  idea  appeared  to  be  that  men  must 
have  patience  with  the  experiment ;  that  the  new  institu- 
tions forced  on  the  people  from  above  were  not  those  they 
had  grown  up  to,  and  that  it  might  take  a  generation  or  more 
to  discover  how  far  the  new  order  of  things  works  for  good 
or  for  evil. 

The  proprietors  speedily  complained  bitterly  of  the 
difficulty  of  making  the  peasants  keep  their  contracts.  At 
the  moment  of  harvest,  or  whenever  their  services  were 
most  needed,  they  were  apt  to  go  off  in  a  body  to  work 
elsewhere,  or  to  keep  saints'  days,  or  to  attend  fairs,  or 
were  incapable  of  work  because  of  a  night's  drunkenness. 
As  I  said,  love  of  drink  is  the  Russian's  worst  enemy. 
Some  one  has  spoken  of  Russia  as  a  land  in  which  there 
are  but  two  classes,  —  those  who  sell  drink,  and  those  who 
consume  it. 

By  a  system  too  complicated  to  explain  here,  it  was 
arranged  that  a  peasant  might  acquire  his  land  after  a  num- 
ber of  years.  But  few  appear  to  have  availed  themselves 
of  the  chance  of  doing  so.  How  far  a  peasant's  acquisition 
of  his  own  land  would  alter  his  relations  to  the  Mir,  I  do 
not  know. 

After  the  Emancipation  many  proprietors  wholly  deserted 
their  country  houses,  and  went  to  live  in  cities ;  but  the 
greater  part  of  them  soon  resumed  their  former  life  ;  and  in 
Russia,  as  elsewhere,  the  relations  between  employer  and 
employed  depend  largely  on  the  character  and  behavior  of 
the  former. 

12 


178      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1XTH  CENTURY. 

According  to  theory  the  self-government  of  rural  Russia 
consists :  — 

First :  of  the  village  meetings  under  the  Volost. 

Secondly :  of  an  assembly  of  representatives  chosen  in 
these  village  meetings;  this  forms  the  Mir. 

Thirdly :  of  a  large  district  assembly  where  nobles  and 
peasants  sit  together ;  and 

Fourthly  :  of  a  sort  of  financial  committee  which  presides 
over  all. 

The  Zemstvo  or  District  Assembly  was  supposed  to  attend 
to  hospitals,  schools,  asylums,  roads,  bridges,  etc. 

So  far  the  plan  of  government  in  Russian  village  com- 
munities is  Slavonic ;  but  over  all  stands  the  bureaucratic 
system,  with  its  agents,  the  police,  imported  from  western 
Europe.  The  emperor  is  at  its  head,  supported  by  a  per- 
fect army  of  officials,  besides  military  officers  who  abound, 
and  everywhere  seem  to  have  a  species  of  authority.  Russia 
is  said  to  possess  eight  thousand  generals. 

I  have  already  said  that  as  the  possession  of  a  share  of 
land  entails  its  proportionate  share  of  taxes,  the  peasants 
are  often  by  no  means  willing  to  be  burdened  by  a  large 
communal  allotment ;  and  Mr.  Wallace  in  an  article  on 
Russian  village  communities  in  "  Macmillan's  Magazine," 
gives  a  scene  as  enacted  at  one  of  the  village  assemblies, 
"  whose  meetings  are  held  generally  on  Sundays  after  ser- 
vice, in  front  of  the  church  or  before  the  starosta's  house 
(or  volost's  house),  or  in  some  convenient  place  where 
there  is  plenty  of  room  and  but  little  mud  "  :  — 

"  *  Come  now,  Ivan,'  says  an  elderly  peasant,  who  has  evi- 
dently an  air  of  authority,  to  one  of  the  bystanders,  *  you  are  a 
sturdy  fellow,  and  you  have  a  son  there,  a  fine  youth,  who  can 
do  the  work  of  two  ;  you  must  take  at  least  three  shares.' 

"  *  No,  I  cannot,'  remonstrates  Ivan.  *  By  God,  I  cannot. 
My  son  —  praise  be  to  God  !  —  is  strong  and  healthy ;  but  I  am 
no  longer  what  I  was,  and  my  old  woman  is  quite  without  force, 
fit  for  nothing  but  to  put  the  cabbage-soup  into  the  oven.  By 
God !  I  cannot.' 

" '  If  the  old  woman  is  weak,  your  daughter-in-law  is  strong,  — 
stronger  than  a  little  horse  1 ' 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      179 

"  A  giggle  in  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  shows  that  the  young 
woman  referred  to  is  among  the  spectators. 

"  *  In  truth  it  is  not  in  my  power,'  pleads  Ivan. 

"  '  There  is  nothing  to  be  said,'  replies  the  old  man,  in  an 
authoritative  tone.  '  Somebody  must  take  the  remaining  souls 
(shares).  You  must  take  three  shares.' 

"  *  Lay  on  him  three  shares  and  a  half  ! '  shouts  a  voice  from 
the  crowd. 

"  This  proposal  evokes  a  confused  murmur  of  l  ayes '  and 
'  noes/  till  the  noes  gain  a  decided  majority,  and  the  ayes  are 
silenced.  A  general  shout  of  *  Three  !  Three ! '  decides  the 
matter. 

" « It  is  the  will  of  the  mtrj  remarks  Ivan,  scratching  the 
back  of  his  head,  and  looking  down  with  a  look  of  mingled 
disappointment  and  resignation. 

"  *  And  now,  Prascovia,  how  such  are  you  to  have  ? '  asks 
the  old  man,  addressing  a  woman  standing  by  with  a  baby  in 
her  arms. 

"  '  As  the  mir  orders,  so  be  it,'  replies  Prascovia,  turning  down 
her  eyes. 

44 '  Very  well.     You  ought  to  have  a  share  and  a  half.' 

"  '  What  do  you  say,  little  father  ?  '  cries  the  woman,  throw- 
ing off  suddenly  her  air  of  subservient  obedience.  *  Do  you 
hear  that,  ye  orthodox  ?  They  want  to  lay  on  me  a  soul  and  a 
half!  Was  such  a  thing  ever  heard  of?  Since  Saint  Peter's 
day  my  husband  has  been  bedridden  —  bewitched  it  seems,  for 
nothing  does  him  good.  He  cannot  put  a  foot  to  the  ground. 
All  the  same  as  if  he  were  dead  ;  only  he  eats  bread.' 

"  *  You  talk  nonsense,'  says  a  neighbor  ;  '  he  was  at  the  gin- 
shop  last  week.' 

u  '  And  you,'  retorts  Prascovia,  wandering  from  the  subject  in 
hand,  *  what  did  you  do  last  parish  fete  ?  Was  it  not  you  who 
got  drunk  and  beat  your  wife  till  she  roused  the  whole  village 
with  her  shrieking  ?  And  no  further  gone  than  last  Sunday  — 
pf  u ! ' 

"  '  Listen,'  says  the  old  man,  sternly  cutting  short  the  torrent 
of  invective.  '  You  must  take  at  least  a  share  and  a  quarter. 
If  you  cannot  manage  it  yourself,  you  can  get  some  one  to  help 
you.' 

"  *  How  can  that  be  ?  Where  am  I  to  get  money  to  pay  a 
laborer?'  asks  the  woman,  with  much  wailing  and  a  flood  of 
tears.  l  Have  pity,  ye  orthodox,  on  the  poor  orphans.  God  will 
reward  you; '  and  so  on  and  so  on." 


l8O    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  possession  of  land  under  the 
commune  is  not  an  unmixed  boon  to  the  peasant  proprietor. 
He  is  tied  to  his  allotment  hand  and  foot.  Formerly  he 
was  serf  to  a  proprietor ;  now  he  is  surf  to  the  commune. 
How  he  can  extricate  himself  from  his  obligations  in  days 
of  pestilence  and  famine  — who  can  say? 

It  is  hardly  too  much  to  add  that  corruption  reigns  every- 
where, and  with  corruption  comes  of  course  injustice.  The 
peasant  is  untrustworthy  in  matters  of  contract,  and  in  his 
relations  with  others  looks  to  his  own  interest  alone ;  the 
merchants  in  the  cities  think  lightly  of  fraud ;  and  the 
venality  and  faithlessness  of  Russian  officials  is  the  stock 
subject  in  books  of  travel  and  in  their  own  novels. 

Justice  made  great  strides  in  the  law  courts  under 
Alexander  II.  Trial  by  jury  in  open  court  was  allowed; 
but  the  country  juries  are  composed  of  peasants,  who, 
like  Judge  Lynch  formerly  in  our  far  western  States,  are 
severe  upon  horse-stealing,  but  lenient  to  other  kinds  of 
crime. 

The  schools,  so  long  as  the  reform  movement  lasted, 
made  great  progress,  but  that  progress  had  begun  before 
Emancipation;  for  in  the  years  between  1860  and  1870  the 
number  of  recruits  who  could  read  had  increased  five-fold. 
But  the  teachers  were  very  poor  in  the  provinces,  being  for 
the  most  part  young  foreigners  with  advanced  and  crude 
ideas,  while  in  the  universities  distinguished  professors  were 
distrusted  by  the  government,  for  fear  they  should  prove 
"  Liberals." 

By  degrees  the  mineral  wealth  of  Russia  (enormous, 
especially  in  Siberia)  was  becoming  turned  to  profit  in 
Alexander's  reign.  Great  coal-beds  and  oil-wells  were 
beginning  to  be  worked,  and  railroads  and  telegraph  wires 
were  stretched  over  the  land. 

Do  we  realize  that  the  emperor  of  Russia  rules  over  one 
seventh  of  the  earth,  and  over  more  than  ninety  millions  of 
subjects ;  or  that  Russia  is  forty  times  as  big  as  France,  if 
we  include  her  Asiatic  possessions? 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERA  TOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      1 8 1 

Among  Alexander's  reforms  was  the  abolition  of  the 
knout,  and  of  corporal  punishment  in  the  army  and  navy. 

I  fear  I  may  have  been  wearisome  with  these  details,  but 
in  general  we  only  think  of  Russia  in  connection  with  her 
projects  in  India,  her  designs  on  Constantinople,  and  her 
exiles  in  Siberia.  We  overlook  the  marvellous  changes  tak- 
ing place,  notwithstanding  the  obstinate  conservatism  of 
her  lower  classes,  although  attention  has  been  called  to 
them  in  the  novels  of  Tolstoi. 

One  of  the  first  events  of  Alexander's  reign  was  a  rising 
in  Poland  in  1863.  That  unhappy  land,  which  has  neither 
a  middle  class  nor  a  frontier,  which  finds  sympathy  every- 
where but  no  allies,  made  another  attempt  at  insurrection, 
failed  utterly,  and  the  rebellion  was  stamped  out  ruth- 
lessly, even  by  Alexander,  who  is  said  always  to  have  cher- 
ished a  personal  antipathy  to  the  Poles.  I  need  not  tell 
the  particulars  of  this  sad  rising,  which,  taking  place  when 
all  our  thoughts,  and  the  attention  of  all  Europe,  were  con- 
centrated on  our  Civil  War,  is  very  little  known  to  us.  The 
Polish  peasants  were  in  general  not  unfavorable  to  Russia. 
The  Polish  patriots  were  among  the  land-owning  country 
nobility,  and  the  educated  professional  class.  These  were 
divided  into  two  parties,  —  Extreme  Radicals  and  Conser- 
vative Patriots.  They  had  no  leader  of  ability,  no  effi- 
cient organization,  either  political  or  military.  They  had 
built  hopes  upon  assistance  from  France,  but  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  III.  had  the  affairs  of  Italy  and  Mexico  upon  his 
hands  at  the  moment,  and,  in  spite  of  the  strong  sympathy 
for  the  cause  of  Poland  freely  expressed  by  the  Empress 
Eugenie,  he  was  not  disposed  to  engage  in  another  enter- 
prise of  intervention.  The  rising  was  a  mere  sacrifice  of 
generous  lives.  There  is  an  interesting  paper  on  the  sub- 
ject in  Laurence  Oliphant's  delightful  book,  "  Gleanings 
in  a  Life  of  Adventure,  or  Moss  from  a  Rolling  Stone."  It 
is  said  that  the  emperor  in  his  dealings  with  Poland  desired 
to  show  Europe,  as  well  as  his  own  subjects,  that  he  too,  on 
occasion,  could  be  stern. 


1 82    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

A  Frenchman  writing  of  Alexander  II.  says  :  "  He  was 
tall,  though  he  had  not  the  majestic  height  of  his  father,  the 
Emperor  Nicholas.  He  was  well  made,  more  so  than  his 
father,  whose  legs  were  too  thin  for  his  immense  torso.  His 
blue  eyes  were  tender  and  soft.  His  smile  was  charming ; 
his  hair  short  and  fair ;  his  moustache  long  and  thick,  as 
were  also  his  whiskers.  His  voice  was  flexible  and  very 
fine." 

Such  was  Alexander  when  he  ascended  the  imperial 
throne  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven.  He  wanted  to  make 
every  one  about  him  happy,  and  his  domestic  life,  until 
broken  up  by  his  son's  death  and  his  wife's  ill-health,  was 
extremely  happy.  The  young  czarevitch,  whose  name  was 
Nicholas,  died  in  1865  >  an<^  fr°m  tne  sorrow  of  his  death 
his  father  and  mother  never  recovered.  He  expired  at 
Nice,  where  his  mother  was  then  staying.  Some  time 
before  he  had  been  injured  in  a  wrestling  bout,  some  say 
with  his  cousin,  Prince  Nicholas  of  Leuchtenburg ;  some 
say  with  Alexander,  his  athletic  brother.  At  any  rate  no 
injury  of  any  consequence  was  apprehended  at  the  time, 
and  he  was  betrothed  to  the  beautiful  and  amiable  Princess 
Dagmar  of  Denmark,  sister  of  Alexandra,  Princess  of  Wales. 
When  alarming  symptoms  showed  themselves  his  father 
hurried  across  Europe  without  stopping,  to  reach  the  death- 
bed of  his  boy,  one  of  whose  last  entreaties  was  that  the 
czarevitch  who  would  succeed  him,  his  brother  Alexander, 
should  take  to  wife  the  Danish  princess  who  was  shortly  to 
have  become  his  bride.  He  had  been  brought  up  with  the 
greatest  care  that  he  might  be  qualified  for  his  profession, 
as  king  Victor  Emmanuel  used  to  call  kingship. 

Alexander  II.  felt  his  son's  death  the  more  severely 
because  he  considered  him  in  every  way  qualified  to  make 
a  noble  and  enlightened  ruler,  and  to  carry  out  his  plans. 
The  intellect  of  his  next  son,  Alexander,  he  by  no  means 
valued  so  highly,  and  it  is  said  that  had  it  been  possible  he 
would  have  made  his  third  son,  the  Grand  Duke  Vladimir, 
his  heir.  Alexander  was,  however,  at  once  put  under  mili- 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      183 

tary  training,  and  eighteen  months  after  his  brother's  death 
was  married  to  the  Princess  Dagmar,  who,  on  being  bap- 
tized into  the  Greek  church  took  the  name  of  Maria 
Feodorovna. 

Marie  of  Darmstadt,  the  wife  of  Alexander  II.  was  gen- 
tle, amiable,  and  cultivated,  but  she  was  at  first  not  dis- 
posed to  Russianize  herself.  In  the  early  years  of  her 
married  life  she  had  carefully  abstained  from  taking  any 
part  in  politics,  and  it  excited  some  surprise  when  she  —  a 
convert  to  the  Greek  Church  —  suddenly  became  in  1877 
an  enthusiast  for  the  Turkish  war.  She  believed  in  it  as  a 
holy  war ;  she  lent  it  her  utmost  support.  She  outdid  the 
old  Muscovites  in  their  horror  of  the  Infidel. 

She  particularly  disliked  the  French,  and  in  her  court 
circle  was  a  model  of  rigid  propriety.  In  private  life,  how- 
ever, she  could  be  gay  and  engaging.  A  good  wife  and  a 
devoted  mother,  she  caused  her  sons  to  be  educated  in  all 
the  accomplishments  of  gentlemen,  instead  of  their  being 
drilled  soldiers  as  had  been  the  case  with  the  generation 
before  them.  The  young  Czarevitch  Nicholas  was  in  every 
way  accomplished ;  to  Alexander,  who  had  no  taste  for 
learning,  she  seems  to  have  communicated  her  religious 
enthusiasm  for  the  church  of  her  adoption,  while  the  Grand 
Duke  Vladimir  became  one  of  the  most  accomplished  musi- 
cians in  Russia,  a  patron  so  far  as  possible  of  artists  and 
authors.  The  last  years  of  her  life  were  clouded  by  ill- 
health,  by  her  son's  death,  and  by  gloomy  forebodings  as  to 
the  future  in  store  for  her  family  amid  the  dangers  of  Nihil- 
ism. When  she  died  her  husband  made  a  morganatic 
marriage  with  the  Princess  Dolgorouka,  by  whom  he  had 
had  several  children.  It  is  said  that  in  the  last  years  of  his 
life  he  practised  strict  economy  in  order  to  provide  them 
with  fortunes.  The  connection  with  the  Princess  Dolgorouka 
was  greatly  disapproved  by  the  present  czar. 

When  Alexander  II.  and  his  empress  were  crowned  at 
Moscow  in  1856,  just  after  the  Crimean  War,  Napoleon  III. 
sent  a  brilliant  embassy,  headed  by  his  kinsman,  the  Due 


184      KUSS1A  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

de  Morny,  to  represent  him  at  the  ceremony.  The  equi- 
pages of  the  French  ambassador  were  marvels  of  magnifi- 
cence ;  the  liveries  were  white  and  gold  with  scarlet  waist- 
coats. The  English  and  Austrian  carriages  were  next  in 
splendor ;  and  as  for  Prince  Esterhazy,  the  Austrian  ambas- 
sador, he  was  literally  covered  with  diamonds  and  pearls. 

The  illumination  that  night  in  Moscow  must  have  seemed 
like  a  scene  in  the  Arabian  nights.  The  principal  buildings 
were  covered  with  lights  from  their  foundations  to  their 
gilded  domes.  The  emperor  and  empress  appeared  in  the 
streets  in  an  open  barouche,  without  an  escort.  The  crowd 
pressed  round  them  with  cries  of  affection  and  joy.  Alas  ! 
twenty- five  years  later  the  same  czar  lay  shattered  and  dying 
by  a  bomb,  thrown  under  the  direction  of  a  young  and 
beautiful  woman,  after  having  escaped  many  other  attempts 
at  assassination. 

The  first  attempt  on  Alexander's  life  struck  him  with  even 
more  surprise  than  consternation  ;  and  it  is  said  to  have 
produced  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  the  mind  of  his 
son  the  present  emperor.  He  was  shot  at  while  walking  in 
the  gardens  of  his  palace  at  Saint  Petersburg  in  1866  by 
a  man  in  peasant  dress  named  Korakasof ;  the  czar  saw, 
or  thought  he  saw,  a  peasant  standing  near  throw  up  the 
pistol,  and  it  went  off  in  the  air.  The  assassin  was  at  once 
arrested,  and,  being  asked  why  he  sought  to  kill  the  czar, 
replied,  because  the  estates  of  the  nobles  were  not  suf- 
ficiently divided  among  the  peasantry.  Under  his  peasant's 
dress,  however,  he  wore  the  clothes  of  a  student,  and  on 
his  person  were  found  papers  connecting  him  with  secret 
societies,  and  making  it  plain  that  to  him  had  fallen  by  lot 
the  task  of  killing  the  emperor.  He  was  tried  and  sent  to 
the  mines  of  Siberia,  where  he  may  be  to  this  day.  The 
peasant  who  saved  the  czar's  life  hardly  met  a  better  fate. 
The  czar  gave  him  a  palace,  and  wealth,  and  made  him  a 
baron ;  but  the  man  was  little  better  than  a  brute,  so 
addicted  to  drink  that  finally  he  was  sent  as  a  lieutenant  to 
a  regiment  campaigning  in  the  Caucasus,  and  there  com- 


THE  EMPEROR- LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      185 

mitted  suicide.  In  the  following  year  a  second  attempt  by 
a  Pole  named  Berezowski  gave  Alexander  infinite  pain. 
He  had  tried  to  think  that  the  crime  of  Korakasof  was  an 
isolated  case  of  regicidal  mania  ;  this  one  of  Berezowski 
inaugurated  a  series  of  such  horrors,  which  never  ceased 
till  they  had  accomplished  their  purpose,  and  which  con- 
tinue to  be  directed  against  the  life  of  his  successor  to  the 
present  day. 

In  1867  the  emperor  visited  the  Paris  Exposition  as  an 
act  of  courtesy  to  Napoleon  III.,  through  whose  dominions 
he  had  passed  without  stopping  two  years  before,  when 
hurrying  to  the  death-bed  of  his  son  at  Nice.  The  king 
and  crown  prince  of  Prussia  were  there,  and  a  crowd  of 
other  royal,  ducal,  and  illustrious  personages.  Some  one  on 
the  occasion  remarked  that  the  French  emperor  "  looked 
like  a  man  who  had  invited  an  incongruous  set  of  guests, 
and  did  not  know  how  to  amuse  them."  He  was  uneasy 
himself,  for  the  prince  imperial  was  seriously  ill ;  the  king 
of  Prussia  was  not  well  pleased  that  higher  honors  were 
offered  to  his  nephew  than  to  himself,  and  the  czar,  to 
every  one  who  saw  him,  seemed  out  of  spirits.  On  June  6, 
after  a  review  on  the  Champ  de  Mars,  the  royal  and 
imperial  guests  returned  to  Paris,  through  the  Bois  de  Bou- 
logne. Napoleon  III.  and  the  Emperor  Alexander,  with  the 
czarevitch  and  the  Grand  Duke  Vladimir  on  the  back  seat, 
occupied  one  carriage  ;  the  king  of  Prussia  and  the  Empress 
Eugenie  were  in  the  next,  and  the  carriages  of  other  nota- 
bilities followed.  The  crowd  was  great  and  the  carriages 
moved  slowly.  Suddenly  a  Pole  named  Berezowski  fired  a 
pistol  at  the  czar.  The  shot  struck  the  nostril  of  an  out- 
rider's horse,  causing  it  to  rear  violently,  scattering  its 
blood  over  the  czarevitch  and  his  brother.  The  assassin 
fired  again,  but  his  pistol  burst  in  his  hand,  and  he  fell  to 
the  ground  with  a  shriek.  The  correspondent  of  a  London 
newspaper  wrote  :  "  For  a  moment  when  the  czar  saw  blood 
upon  his  sons  he  looked  alarmed.  Napoleon  got  up, 
waved  his  hat,  and  then  said  to  the  czar,  '  Sire,  we  have 


1 86      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XlX™i  CENTURY. 

been  under  fire  together.'  Calmly  the  czar  replied  :  <  The 
lives  of  kings,  as  of  their  subjects,  are  in  the  hands  of 
Providence.'  Next  day  a  Te  Deum  was  sung  in  the  Rus- 
sian Church,  where  the  grand  dukes  embraced  their  father, 
and  showed  much  feeling." 

When  Berezowski  was  put  upon  his  trial  it  turned  out 
that  his  father  and  brother  had  been  exiled  to  Siberia 
for  participation  in  the  Polish  insurrection  of  1863,  and 
this  fact  saved  him  from  the  guillotine.  The  jury  brought 
in  a  verdict  of  "guilty  with  extenuating  circumstances,"  and 
he  was  sent  to  New  Caledonia.  The  government  of  Na- 
tional Defence  in  1870  granted  him  a  pardon.  M.  Thiers 
revoked  it,  and  it  seems  uncertain  what  has  become  of  him. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  his  crime  did  his 
fellow-countrymen  a  great  deal  of  harm. 

And  now  perhaps  we  may  approach  the  subject  of 
Russian  Nihilism.  Yet  who  can  understand  it  with  its 
ramifications  which  run  through  what  is  called  in  Europe 
the  International  Society ;  and  our  Anarchists  in  the  West, 
who  are  imported  chiefly  from  Germany  and  Norway,  are 
said  by  Western  men  to  be  more  numerous  than  the  general 
public  in  the  Eastern  cities  is  willing  to  suppose.  Even 
Nihilists  are  said  not  to  understand  Nihilism,  but  to  yield 
it  a  blind  obedience.  And  first  we  may  say  that  while 
there  is  probably  hardly  a  peasant  in  Russia  who  is  a 
genuine  Nihilist,  there  is  probably  not  a  genuine  American 
who  is  an  Anarchist. 

Nihilism  means  —  Nothing  at  all.  It  comes  from  the 
same  root  as  annihilate.  It  proceeds  on  the  supposition 
that  whatever  is,  is  wrong.  Its  avowed  object  is  destruc- 
tion. Everything  that  exists  having  been  destroyed,  men 
may  begin  to  think  of  building  up  again. 

It  destroys,  not  from  aversion  to  an  individual,  but 
because  his  or  her  death  may  help  the  cause.  The  Nihil- 
ists do  not  call  their  deeds  murder,  any  more  than  the 
sheriff  who  hangs  a  man,  or  a  soldier  who  shoots  one,  call 
their  killing  by  that  name. 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.     l8/ 

The  first  plot  of  the  Nihilists  was  the  one  that  was  ripen- 
ing when  the  Emperor  Alexander  I.  died.  He  had  been 
told  of  the  discovery  of  a  plot  to  assassinate  him  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  and  it  had  greatly  discomposed  him.  His 
brother  Nicholas's  first  step  on  coming  to  the  throne  was 
utterly  to  crush  out  this  Nihilism  in  his  dominions.  Alex- 
ander had  had  no  personal  enemies.  His  sacrifice  was  to 
be  for  the  good  of  the  cause.  That  "  cause  "  Nicholas  set 
himself  to  destroy,  both  root  and  branch ;  and  thoroughly 
and  mercilessly  he  prepared  himself  to  do  it.  He  thought, 
as  his  reign  went  on,  that  he  had  accomplished  it.  He 
walked  fearlessly  among  his  people  all  his  days ;  to  be  sure, 
it  was  forbidden  to  speak  to  him.  On  one  occasion  he  met 
in  his  park  the  first  tenor  of  the  Italian  Opera,  and 
exchanged  a  few  words  with  him ;  the  moment  the  czar  was 
out  of  sight  the  tenor  was  arrested.  The  czar  attended  the 
Opera  that  evening,  when  after  some  delay  the  manager 
came  forward  and  announced  that  the  first  tenor  could  not 
be  found.  The  czar  started,  guessed  what  had  happened, 
and  sent  an  aide-de-camp  to  the  police.  The  singer  was 
released  and  the  play  went  on.  A  few  days  after,  the  czar, 
meeting  him  again,  began  with  an  apology :  "  I  was  very 
sorry  —  "  "  May  I  implore  your  Majesty,"  cried  the 
Italian,  "  not  to  speak  to  me.  Your  Majesty  will  com- 
promise me  with  the  police." 

There  is  a  Nihilist  song  in  circulation  which  describes 
the  good  time  coming  as  the  day  in  which  there  will  be 
no  God  and  no  czar  ! 

Here  is  an  article  published  in  one  of  the  Nihilist  organs 
in  Switzerland  on  the  subject  of  political  assassination :  — 

"  A  few  trifling  assassinations  committed  by  us  have  induced 
the  Russian  government  to  proclaim  a  state  of  siege,  to  double 
the  political  police,  to  place  Cossacks  in  all  directions,  and  to 
redouble  the  vigilance  of  the  gens  d'armes.  By  a  few  resolute 
acts  we  have  brought  to  these  exaggerated  measures  of  despera- 
tion an  autocracy  that  years  of  agitation,  and  centuries  of  agony, 
the  despair  of  young  men,  the  groans  of  the  oppressed,  the 


1 88     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXT"  CENTURY. 

curses  of  thousands  murdered  by  exile,  tortured  to  death  in 
Siberian  deserts  and  mines,  —  could  not  have  effected.  Who 
says  that  assassination  is  not  one  of  the  most  powerful  means 
by  which  we  may  carry  on  successful  warfare  against  Russian 
despotism  ?  " 

Another  address  that  lies  before  me,  after  proclaiming 
that  the  murder  of  a  sovereign  can  only  be  punished  with 
death  like  any  other  murder,  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  neces- 
sity of  clearing  away  everything  that  exists,  —  government, 
religion,  family  ties,  patriotism,  and  so  on.  "  Then,"  it 
cries,  "  will  spring  to  life  a  new  generation,  pure  from 
routine  !  Then  a  new  dawn  will  light  up  this  old  earth  ! 
All  will  be  happy  till  abuses  re-accumulate,  and  our  great 
grandchildren  do  over  again  the  things  that  we  have  done. 
Thus  from  struggle  to  struggle  human  society,  after  cen- 
turies of  combat,  will  reach  perfection,  and  become  itself 
that  which  you  call  God  !  Follow  me,  brothers  !  Follow 
me,  and  conquer  for  yourselves  divinity  !  " 

Poor  creatures  !  In  these  ravings  we  hear  the  voice  of 
our  common  humanity  as  it  looks  forward  to  the  Great  Day 
of  the  Lord,  —  the  "  time  of  the  restitution  of  all  things," 
the  time  for  which  "  the  whole  creation  "  "  groaneth  and 
travaileth  together "  in  expectation.  And  to  think  that 
that  time  could  be  hastened  by  blood-guiltiness  —  by 
assassination ! 

If  this  statement  of  the  views  and  aims  of  Nihilism,  culled 
from  its  own  documents,  published  in  its  own  newspapers, 
should  seem  exaggerated,  we  have  only  to  compare  it  with 
TourgeniefPs  account  of  Nihilism  in  his  novels,  especially 
the  one  called  "  Fathers  and  Sons."  The  great  novelist  sus- 
tains every  word  I  have  said  upon  the  subject. 

Only  those  are  permitted  to  become  influential  Nihilists 
who  have  personal  reasons  for  hating  the  government,  or 
have  some  vengeance  to  wreak  on  some  employe,  or  have 
received  a  revolutionary  education,  or  have  the  revolutionary 
temperament  with  which  some  men  and  women  appear  to 
be  born. 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.       189 

The  Nihilist  army  is  ruled  by  a  central  committee, 
which  is  ruled  by  what  some  secret  societies  call  a  Grand 
Centre.  But  none  know  each  other ;  none  communicate 
directly  with  the  Grand  Centre,  nor  even  know  who  he  is. 
Some  accounts  say  that  Nihilists  are  divided  into  com- 
panies of  five,  ten,  or  fifteen,  each  with  an  officer  over 
them,  who  does  not  communicate  directly  with  the  Central 
Committee,  still  less  with  the  Grand  Centre,  but  only  with 
a  delegate  or  sub-delegate  of  the  committee. 

Tourgenieff  was  always  insisting  that  the  national  defect 
of  the  Russians  is  want  of  will.  The  easiest  thing  to  them, 
he  says,  is  passive  obedience.  He  considers  that  the  power 
of  Nihilism  lies  in  making  use  of  this  spirit  of  passive  obe- 
dience. Every  man  beneath  the  Grand  Centre  gives  up 
his  private  judgment,  and  for  "  the  good  of  the  cause  "  does 
simply  what  he  is  required  to  do. 

Every  treason,  disobedience,  or  undue  exhibition  of 
curiosity  is  punished  with  death,  —  death  as  sudden  as  a 
thunderbolt. 

As  all  members  are  bound  to  help  the  rest,  the  power  of 
the  society  is  enormously  increased,  and  all  members  be- 
come, as  it  were,  each  other's  accomplices. 

Corruption  is  employed  to  get  state  secrets,  etc.,  out  of 
public  employes,  non-commissioned  officers,  the  police,  etc. 
Sometimes  money,  sometimes  the  wiles  of  women,  sometimes 
intimidation  are  employed. 

I  said  there  were  probably  few  or  no  peasants  among  the 
Nihilists,  and  the  peasant  class  comprises  five  sixths  of  the 
population  of  European  Russia  :  — 

"  A  stolid,  ignorant,  utterly  unprogressive  mass,"  says  one 
who  knows  them,  "  they  have  received  in  gift  to  their  communes 
half  the  empire  for  their  own  use,  yet  in  many  cases  the  gift 
has  ruined  them.  Still  they  cling  to  the  soil,  and  dread  all 
change,  fearing  it  may  endanger  that  coveted  possession.  A 
dense,  solid  stratum  of  conservatism  thus  constitutes  the  base 
of  Russian  society,  and  above  it  lies  the  most  corrupt  set  of  offi- 
cials to  be  found  in  the  whole  world,  kept  in  order  neither  by  a 
public  press,  public  opinion,  nor  civil  service  customs.  The 


RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

middle  and  upper  classes  are  often  full  of  ardent  wishes  for  the 
advancement  of  society,  and  the  reform  of  the  State.  Their 
views  of  action  are  generally  of  the  wildest  and  most  terrible 
description;  but  their  objects  are  anything  but  unreasonable. 
They  desire  to  share  in  political  power  and  the  government  of 
their  own  country,  as  is  the  privilege  of  every  other  nation  in 
Europe,  and  they  hope  to  do  something  for  the  seething  mass 
of  ignorance  and  misery  around  them." 

It  is  from  this  educated  class  —  professional  men,  col- 
lege students,  and  the  younger  members  of  the  nobility  — 
that  the  society  of  Nihilists  recruits  itself.  When  the 
Emperor  Alexander  II.  opened  new  colleges  and  public 
schools  he  had  not  the  means  to  invite  distinguished  pro- 
fessors from  other  countries ;  he  had  to  content  himself 
with  men  who  could  be  had  for  a  small  salary,  —  young  men, 
for  the  most  part,  whose  unsettled  opinions  were  a  bar  to 
their  getting  on  elsewhere.  These,  coming  into  Russia  just 
as  a  social  revolution  was  inaugurated,  pressed  progress  to 
its  extreme,  and  inspired  the  young  people  under  them, 
male  and  female,  with  the  wildest  aspirations  after  liberty 
and  revolution. 

Newly  adopted  ideas,  as  we  all  know,  produce  fermenta- 
tion ;  and  fermentation  will  produce  explosion.  Young 
men  and  young  women  of  the  higher  classes,  having  re- 
ceived a  college  education  and  the  germs  of  revolutionary 
ideas,  on  returning  to  their  homes  from  the  university  com- 
monly find  nothing  to  do,  nothing  to  interest  them,  nothing 
to  call  out  their  higher  feelings ;  and  they  are  attracted  to 
Nihilism,  misled  by  patriotic  sympathies,  and  the  charm  ot 
mystery  and  secret  power. 

All  accounts  tell  us  that,  while  Russians  are  most  punctual 
in  devout  observances,  heart  religion  in  their  country  is  at  a 
low  ebb.  As  it  was  in  ancient  paganism,  when  religion  con- 
sisted in  due  offerings  to  the  gods,  due  vows  performed,  and 
hecatombs  sacrificed,  —  so  the  religion  of  the  Russian  peas- 
ant seems  to  consist  in  an  unquestioning  submission  to  the 
decrees  of  fate,  and  devout  adoration  of  the  sacred  ikons, 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      IQI 

without  any  thought  of  personal  relations  to  God.  He  brings 
home  nothing  from  his  church  that  will  enter  into  his  daily 
life  but  blind  submission. 

The  imagination  of  the  Russian,  always  gloomy,  seeks  its 
outlook,  among  the  educated,  in  wild  schemes  of  patriot- 
ism and  philanthropy,  to  be  preceded  by  destruction,  — 
while  the  peasantry  (like  our  own  people  on  sandy  shores 
or  in  mountain  districts,  where  the  imagination  has  nothing  to 
feed  it  but  what  it  can  derive  from  crude  notions  of  religion) 
run  into  the  wildest,  wickedest  forms  of  piety,  if  we  may  so 
term  ftheir  religious  beliefs. 

About  forty  years  ago  an  educated  fanatic  on  the  eastern 
frontier  of  European  Russia,  disgusted  with  the  wickedness 
of  the  world  around  him,  retired  into  a  forest,  determined 
to  make  an  end  of  this  life  of  sin  and  ignominy.  He  did 
not  attempt  to  proselytize,  but  his  views  soon  found  accept- 
ance among  his  neighbors,  and  numbers  flocked  to  him  in 
the  woods  crying :  "  Antichrist  is  raging  round  !  Let  us 
escape  by  dying  of  hunger !  "  The  women  made  grave- 
clothes  for  themselves,  their  men,  and  the  little  children. 
The  men  dug  their  graves.  They  renounced  Satan,  and 
they  pledged  themselves  never  again  to  taste  food.  The 
children's  sufferings,  after  two  days,  so  moved  two  of  the 
male  fanatics  that  they  escaped  from  the  dreadful  sight. 
Then  the  leader,  fearing  other  desertions,  called  on  them 
to  massacre  each  other.  The  children  were  killed  first, 
then  the  women.  At  last  only  the  leader  and  three  more 
were  left  alive  ;  these  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  police,  who 
had  been  summoned  by  the  fugitives. 

This  mania  for  suicide,  and  indifference  to  death,  is  a 
national  characteristic  of  the  Russians.  In  1812  all  the 
inhabitants  of  a  village  flung  themselves,  for  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  salvation  of  their  own  souls,  on  to  a  funeral 
pyre.  In  1860  fifteen  men  for  the  same  reason  devoted 
themselves  to  death  in  one  family.  On  the  very  day  I 
write  these  lines  a  newspaper  telegram  informs  us  that 
hundreds  of  peasants  have  flung  themselves  before  the  train 


192       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

that  was   carrying    the    Emperor    Alexander    III.    to    the 
Crimea. 

The  same  state  of  nerves  and  of  excited  feeling  that  in- 
duces such  things  in  the  ignorant,  produces  Nihilism  in  the 
educated  classes.  In  one  place  eighty- four  persons  made 
a  frantic  attempt  to  burn  themselves  alive  in  a  cavern, 
crying,  "  We  die  for  Christ ! "  as  they  perished  in  the 
flames. 

Some  sects  advocate  all  that  is  natural.  They  will  not 
shave  nor  cut  their  hair;  they  do  not  smoke,  nor  drink 
spirits.  The  consequence  of  those  two  last  peculiarities  is 
that  they  grow  rich  as  those  around  them  grow  poor.  Men, 
they  say,  should  make  for  themselves  all  that  is  necessary, 
and  never  trade  nor  buy.  They  preach  free-love,  and  dis- 
card marriage.  They  are  called  Negators.  They  recognize 
no  rights  of  property,  no  social  institutions.  The  government 
has  been  always  very  severe  on  dissenters  from  the  ortho- 
dox Russian  Church,  and  even  in  the  time  of  Alexander  II. 
numbers  of  such  extravagant  fanatics  were  sent  to  Siberia. 

Some  sects  forbid  any  amusements  ;  some  are  "jumpers  ;  " 
others  enjoin  their  members  to  live  alone ;  some  allow  two 
wives  to  a  believer ;  some  are  socialists  as  well  as  religious 
fanatics ;  some  might  be  described  as  Russian  Quakers. 

But  this  is  enough.  It  was  Taine  who  said  that  when  a 
people  has  no  proper  outlet  for  its  imagination  (a  gift 
which  is  inevitably  bestowed  on  some  persons  in  every 
community,  however  prosaic  and  commonplace)  it  will 
assuredly  result  in  wild,  uncouth  misconceptions  of  religion. 

According  to  Mr.  Kennan's  articles  in  the  "  Century," 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  convicts  were  sent  to 
Siberia  in  six  years  (from  1884  to  1890),  but  of  these  not 
more  than  one  in  a  hundred  was  a  political  exile.  Of  the 
political  exiles  the  larger  part,  according  to  Mr.  Kennan, 
are  simply  men  who  hold  (or  are  supposed  to  hold) 
advanced  political  opinions,  without  belonging  to  the  secret 
organization  which  preaches  bombs  and  dynamite.  How 
far  Mr.  Kennan's  testimony  is  true  remains  to  be  proved 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.      193 

by  corroborating  or  rebutting  evidence.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  Russian  police,  all  on  the  qui  vive,  is 
ready  to  make  arrests  upon  the  slightest  suspicion,  and 
that  one  half  of  the  exiles  have  been  banished  without 
trial,  a  large  part  of  them  by  their  own  communes,  expelled 
as  unruly  members,  or  as  defaulters  in  their  taxes,  —  private 
spite  having  probably,  in  a  good  many  instances,  consider- 
able to  do  with  their  misfortunes. 

When  Alexander  II.  came  to  his  throne  Russia,  ex- 
hausted by  the  Crimean  War,  had  only  paper  money,  few 
factories,  only  old  methods  in  agriculture,  six  hundred 
miles  only  of  railroad,  and  hardly  any  other  tolerable  roads 
over  its  enormous  territory.  The  emperor  applied  himself 
to  the  peaceful  work  of  reform,  and  carried  it  out  with  a 
skill,  tact,  and  above  all  with  an  ease  which  a  foreign  public 
is  hardly  able  at  present  to  appreciate,  but  which  may 
some  day  excite  the  wonder  of  those  who  are  able  to 
grasp  the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  attempted  and  in  part 
performed. 

In  less  than  twenty- five  years  an  amount  of  work  was 
performed  in  Russia  that  it  has  taken  a  century  to  accom- 
plish in  other  lands.  Into  every  large  town  in  Russia  now 
runs  a  railroad,  well  managed  and  well  appointed.  Steam- 
ers ply  on  all  the  rivers,  even  those  of  Siberia ;  produce  is 
brought  westward  from  the  remotest  provinces ;  and,  alas  ! 
wherever  Russian  civilization  establishes  itself  corruption  and 
petty  oppression  seem  to  spread. 

I  do  not  think  I  can  better  conclude  this  paper  than  by 
slightly  abridging  the  sketch  Mr.  Wallace  has  drawn  for  us 
of  a  landed  proprietor  of  the  old  school  under  the  new 
conditions  :  — 

"  Somewhere  about  sixty  years  ago  [Mr.  Wallace  is  writing 
in  1876]  Ivan  Ivanovitch  was  born  in  the  country  house  where 
he  still  lives.  His  first  lessons  he  received  from  the  parish 
priest,  and  afterwards  he  was  taught  by  a  deacon's  son,  who  had 
studied  in  a  theological  seminary  to  so  little  purpose  that  he  was 
unable  to  pass  the  examination.  Under  both  these  teachers  he 

13 


194    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

was  suffered  to  learn  as  little  as  he  chose ;  and  he  was  still  very 
slightly  acquainted  with  the  elementary  rules  of  arithmetic  when 
his  father  one  day  declared  that  as  he  was  eighteen  he  must 
enter  the  service.  His  father's  project  that  he  should  enter  a 
cavalry  regiment  as  a  Junker,  or  volunteer,  under  an  old  colonel, 
a  former  friend,  did  not  at  all  please  Ivan.  He  had  no  love 
for  military  service,  and  possibly  disliked  the  prospect  of  an 
examination  :  so,  while  seeming  to  bow  implicitly  to  his  father's 
authority,  he  induced  his  mother  to  oppose  the  scheme. 

"  The  Marshal  of  Nobility,  who  happened  to  call  one  day, 
helped  him  out  of  his  difficulty  by  offering  to  inscribe  him  as 
secretary  in  the  office  of  a  certain  court,  where  his  duties  could 
be  filled  by  a  paid  secretary.  This  plan  exactly  suited  Ivan 
Ivanovitch,  and  in  seven  years,  without  having  done  a  stroke  of 
work,  he  rose  to  a  civil  rank  corresponding  to  that  of  a  captain 
in  the  army,  by  gradual  promotion. 

"  By  this  time  it  was  decided  he  must  marry.  His  courtship 
did  not  even  cost  him  the  trouble  of  proposing.  The  whole 
affair  was  arranged  by  his  parents,  who  chose  for  their  son's 
bride  the  daughter  of  their  next  neighbor.  The  young  lady  was 
only  about  sixteen,  and  was  not  remarkable  for  beauty,  talent, 
or  any  other  peculiarity  ;  but  she  had  one  very  important  quali- 
fication, —  she  was  the  daughter  of  a  man  who  had  an  estate 
contiguous  to  their  own,  and  who  might  give  as  dowry  a  certain 
bit  of  land  they  had  long  desired  to  add  to  their  own  property. 

"  Though  the  bridegroom  had  received,  rather  than  had  taken 
to  himself,  a  wife,  and  did  not  imagine  for  a  moment  he  was  in 
love,  he  had  no  reason  to  regret  the  choice  that  was  made  for 
him.  Maria  Petrovna  was  exactly  suited,  both  by  nature  and 
education,  to  be  the  wife  of  such  a  man  as  Ivan  Ivanovitch. 
She  had  grown  up  at  home  in  the  society  of  nurses  and  servant- 
maids,  and  had  never  learned  anything  more  than  could  be 
obtained  from  the  parish  priest  and  from  Mam'selle,  a  person 
occupying  a  position  between  a  servant-maid  and  a  governess. 
The  first  years  of  her  married  life  were  not  very  happy,  for  she 
was  treated  by  her  mother-in-law  as  a  naughty  child  who  required 
to  be  frequently  snubbed  and  lectured  ;  but  she  bore  the  disci- 
pline with  exemplary  patience,  and  in  due  time  became  her  own 
mistress,  and  autocratic  ruler  in  domestic  affairs. 

"  The  daily  life  of  this  worthy  couple  became  singularly  regu- 
lar and  monotonous.  In  summer  Ivan  Ivanovitch  gets  up  about 
seven  o'clock,  and  puts  on,  with  the  assistance  of  his  valet  de 
fhambre,  a  simple  costume  consisting  principally  of  a  faded, 


THE  EMPEROR-LIBERATOR,  AND  HIS  REFORMS.       195 

plentifully  stained  dressing-gown.  Having  nothing  particular 
to  do,  he  sits  down  at  the  open  window  and  looks  into  the  yard. 
As  the  servants  pass  he  stops  them  and  questions  them,  and 
then  gives  them  orders  or  scolds  them  as  circumstances  demand. 
Toward  nine  o'clock  breakfast  is  announced,  and  he  goes  into 
the  dining-room,  a  long,  narrow  apartment  with  bare  wooden 
floor,  and  no  furniture  but  a  table  and  chairs  in  a  more  or  less 
rickety  condition.  Here  he  finds  his  wife  with  the  tea-urn 
before  her.  In  a  few  minutes  the  younger  children  come  in, 
kiss  their  papa's  hand,  and  take  their  places  round  the  table. 
As  the  meal  consists  only  of  bread  and  tea  it  does  not  last  long, 
and  then  all  disperse  to  their  several  occupations.  Ivan  Ivano- 
vitch  smokes  several  pipes,  and  then,  if  not  too  warm,  goes  forth 
to  visit  the  stables  and  farm-yard,  but  soon  returns  to  his  place 
by  the  window,  and  remains  wrapped  in  contemplation. 

"Maria  Petrovna  spends  her  morning  in  a  more  active  way. 
As  soon  as  the  breakfast-table  has  been  cleared  she  goes  to  the 
larder,  takes  stock  of  the  provisions,  arranges  the  menu  for  the 
day,  and  gives  the  cook  directions  and  the  necessary  materials. 
The  rest  of  the  morning  she  devotes  to  her  other  household 
duties. 

"  Toward  one  o'clock  dinner  is  announced,  and  Ivan  Ivano- 
vitch  prepares  his  appetite  by  swallowing  at  one  gulp  a  wineglass 
full  of  home-made  bitters. 

"  No  sooner  has  the  last  dish  been  removed  than  a  deathlike 
stillness  falls  upon  the  house  for  about  two  hours.  Master, 
mistress,  children,  servants,  dogs,  are  taking  their  siesta.  In 
about  two  hours  they  awake.  The  samovar  is  brought,  and  they 
have  tea.  Then  Ivan  Ivanovitch  makes  the  tour  of  his  fields 
in  a  drosky,  consisting  of  two  pair  of  wheels  joined  together  by 
a  single  board  on  which  the  driver  sits  astride.  In  the  evening 
often  a  group  of  peasants  comes  into  the  yard  and  asks  to  see 
the  master.  In  reply  to  his  question,  'Well,  children,  what  do 
you  want  ?  '  they  tell  their  story  in  a  confused,  rambling  kind  of 
way,  several  of  them  speaking  at  a  time,  and  he  has  to  question 
and  cross-question  them  before  he  can  find  out  clearly  what 
they  desire.  If  he  tells  them  he  cannot  grant  it,  they  probably 
resort  to  supplication  :  '  Little  father !  Ivan  Ivanovitch  !  be 
generous.  You  are  our  father  —  we  are  your  children,'  etc. 

"  The  family  leads  a  very  isolated  life,  but  they  have  one  bond 
of  connection  with  the  great  outer  world.  Two  of  the  sons  are 
officers  in  the  army,  and  they  write  home  occasionally  to  their 
mother  and  sisters. 


196    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

"  During  the  Crimean  War  Ivan  Ivanovitch  half  awoke  from 
his  habitual  lethargy,  and  read  the  papers.  He  was  a  little  sur- 
prised that  no  great  victories  were  announced,  and  that  the 
army  did  not  at  once  advance  on  Constantinople.  Some  of  his 
neighbors  told  him  that  the  army  was  disorganized,  and  that  the 
whole  system  of  Nicholas  had  proved  worthless.  Well !  —  that 
might  be  true.  He  did  not  understand  politics.  It  would  all 
come  right  in  the  end.  And  so  it  did,  after  a  fashion,  but  ere 
long  he  was  startled  by  rumors  more  alarming  than  any  rumors 
of  war.  The  emancipation  of  the  serfs  was  in  question.  For  a 
long  time  he  would  not  believe  it.  When  he  was  forced  to  do 
so  he  was  somewhat  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  losing  his 
authority.  He  had  never  been  a  cruel  master,  but  he  had  not 
spared  the  rod  when  he  considered  it  necessary,  and  he  believed 
birch  twigs  to  be  a  necessary  instrument  in  Russian  agriculture. 
When  he  found  that  the  peasants  were  to  receive  a  large  part 
of  his  estate  for  their  own  use,  he  considered  himself  ruined. 

"  These  dark  forebodings  have  not  been  by  any  means  real- 
ized. His  serfs  pay  him  annually  a  considerable  sum,  and  they 
are  at  hand  to  cultivate  his  fields  for  a  fair  remuneration.  His 
yearly  outlay  is  now  considerably  greater,  but  the  price  of  grain, 
when  it  has  risen,  counterbalances  the  increased  expenditure. 
The  administration  of  the  estate  is  much  less  patriarchal ;  much 
that  was  formerly  left  to  custom  and  tacit  understanding  is  now 
regulated  by  express  agreement.  More  money  is  paid  out,  but 
a  good  deal  more  comes  in.  There  is  less  authority  in  the  hands 
of  the  master,  but  he  is  relieved  from  much  of  his  responsi- 
bility. Ivan  Ivanovitch  would  have  great  difficulty  in  deciding 
whether  he  is  now  a  richer  or  a  poorer  man.  He  has  fewer 
horses,  and  fewer  servants,  but  he  has  still  more  than  he  re- 
quires, and  his  mode  of  life  has  undergone  no  perceptible  altera- 
tion. Maria  Petrovna  complains  that  she  is  no  longer  supplied 
with  eggs,  chickens,  and  home-spun  linen  by  the  peasants,  and 
that  everything  is  three  times  as  dear  as  it  used  to  be ;  but  some- 
how the  larder  is  still  full,  and  abundance  reigns  in  the  house 
as  of  old." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

FOUR   SULTANS.1 

T  X  7E  may  fill  up  the  interval  between  the  Crimean  War 
*  *  and  the  Russian  invasion  of  Turkey  in  1877  by 
some  account  of  the  three  sultans  who  ruled  during  that 
period,  and  of  the  fourth  who  in  1876  ascended  the  throne. 
It  is  not  always  easy  to  intertwine  the  threads  of  narrative 
while  telling  the  story  of  two  countries,  and  it  is  sometimes 
necessary  to  retrace  our  steps  over  already  trodden  ground. 

Mahmoud  II.,  the  destroyer  of  the  Janissaries,  died  in 
1839,  leaving  three  sons,  two  of  whom,  Abdul  Medjid  and 
Abdul  Aziz,  subsequently  mounted  the  Turkish  throne.  By 
Mohammedan  law  the  sons  of  a  deceased  sovereign  who 
has  no  brothers,  succeed  each  other,  till  on  the  death  of 
the  youngest  the  heirship  reverts  to  the  sons  of  the  eldest 
brother.  As  Sultan  Mahmoud  had  no  brother,  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Abdul  Medjid,  who  came  to  the  throne 
during  one  of  those  crises  in  the  Eastern  Question  which 
convulse  Europe  about  once  in  fifteen  years.  On  this  occa- 
sion, as  we  have  seen,  Ibrahim  Pasha,  the  bold  son  of  the 
viceroy  of  Egypt,  had  conquered  Syria,  and  was  threatening 
Constantinople.  Russia  had  volunteered  her  protection  to 
the  Porte,  and  the  balance  of  power  was  disturbed. 

The  reign  of  Abdul  Medjid  lasted  from  1839  to  1861. 
Turkish  history  has  no  record  of  any  other  sovereign  so 

1  For  this  chapter  I  am  largely  indebted  to  Count  E.  de  Keratry, 
who  in  1878  published  a  book  called  "  Sultan  Murad  V.,"  from  which 
I  made  by  translation  and  abridgment  an  article  published  in  the 
"Living  Age,"  No.  1787.  — E.  W.  L. 


198     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

humane,  so  fond  of  order,  so  much  inclined  to  accept  the 
refinements  of  modern  civilization ;  but  the  systematic  oppo- 
sition of  his  pashas,  that  oligarchy  of  office-holders  who 
aspired  to  be  the  actual  governing  power  in  Turkey,  ren- 
dered his  reforming  hafts,  or  edicts,  of  very  little  avail.  In 
vain  did  Abdul  Medjid  and  his  successors  promulgate  decrees 
in  favor  of  non- Mussulmans ;  neither  Jew  nor  Christian 
dared  seek  protection  from  such  documents  in  opposition 
to  public  opinion. 

As  a  reformer  Abdul  Medjid  had  to  keep  his  eye  upon 
all  public  officers,  provincial  governors,  and  judges;  in 
matters  of  religion  his  task  was  to  build  up  a  liberal  party 
among  the  interpreters  of  the  Koran;  and  the  struggle  to 
accomplish  these  things  without  support  proved  too  great 
for  him. 

The  Crimean  War,  too,  notwithstanding  its  avowed  aim 
of  protecting  Turkey,  brought  two  new  elements  of  decay 
to  hasten  the  disintegration  of  the  empire. 

Up  to  1856  Turkey  had  been  free  from  foreign  creditors. 
The  opening  of  the  Dardanelles  brought  commerce,  and  a 
foreign  loan,  and  on  the  steps  of  indebtedness  followed 
extravagance,  speculation,  and  national  bankruptcy. 

Besides  this,  the  great  Powers,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris, 
forbade  the  interference  of  Russia  in  the  internal  affairs  of 
Turkey,  and  at  the  same  time  renounced  all  right  to  inter- 
meddle themselves.  This  "  self-denying  ordinance  "  cut 
off  from  Abdul  Medjid  a  great  source  of  strength.  He 
became  no  match  for  his  conservative  pashas,  and  most 
dreadful  massacres  in  Syria  were  the  first  fruits  of  the  new 
system  of  diplomacy. 

Finding  his  solicitude  for  his  subjects  barren  of  good 
results,  Abdul  Medjid,  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  gave 
himself  up  to  self-indulgence,  especially  in  wines  and  in  the 
pleasures  of  the  table.  He  limited  his  reforms  thenceforth 
to  his  harem  and  his  household.  To  his  courtiers  he  was 
an  amiable  and  considerate  master,  and  he  was  ever  a  ten- 
der, loving  husband  to  his  wives.  The  death  of  one  of  his 


FOUR  SULTANS. 


199 


favorites,  to  whom  he  is  said  ever  to  have  borne  himself  as 

knight  to  lady,  brought  on  an  attack  of  melancholy  which 

hastened  his  end. 

.    If  we  look  back  to  the  reign  of  his  father  Mahmoud  we 

shall  see  how  Abdul  Medjid  redeemed  at  least  court  life 

from  barbarity,  and  softened  the  brutal  element  in  Oriental 

manners. 

Mahmoud  made  no  scruple  of  strangling  his  pashas  with- 
out forms  of  law  ;  he  massacred  without  pity  or  remorse  his 
whole  corps  of  Janissaries ;  and  his  wives,  if  any  offended 
him,  were  never  pardoned.  Abdul  Medjid,  unlike  his 
father,  loved  justice  and  mercy.  Devoted  as  he  was  to  his 
own  son  Murad,  he  never  dreamed  of  delivering  himself  of 
his  brother  Abdul  Aziz  in  order  to  open  the  succession  to 
this  beloved  son.  Ottoman  custom,  from  the  earliest  his- 
tory of  the  race,  has,  as  I  said,  fixed  the  succession  to  the 
throne  and  the  caliphate,  not  by  hereditary  descent  from 
father  to  son,  but  successively  to  every  living  son  of  a 
dead  sultan.  For  this  reason  every  sultan  from  Bajazet  to 
Ahmed  I.  had  been  guilty  of  fratricide.  But  Abdul  Medjid 
refused  with  horror  all  suggestions  of  that  kind,  and  treated 
his  brother  Abdul  Aziz  with  a  persistent  kindness  and  con- 
sideration, which  Abdul  Aziz,  when  subsequently  upon  the 
throne,  did  not  return  to  his  nephew  Murad. 

Mahmoud  II.  transmitted  to  neither  of  his  sons  the  daring 
nor  the  strength  of  will  that  made  him  great.  Their  mothers' 
characters  came  out  in  them.  Abdul  Aziz  cared  nothing 
for  the  welfare  of  his  subjects ;  he  hated  the  civilization  of 
Europe  ;  he  was  a  true  Turk  of  the  old  school.  In  person 
he  was  more  like  his  father  Mahmoud  than  his  elder  brother, 
and  he  displayed  the  savagery  of  the  destroyer  of  the  Janis- 
saries without  his  noble  qualities.  His  mother  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  Kurds,  and  he  inherited  the  temperament  of  her 
race.  She  exercised  over  him  a  fatal  influence,  being  a 
woman  of  low,  vulgar  type,  fit  only  to  develop  his  bad  pas- 
sions. She  used  to  laugh  when  she  saw  him  amuse  himself 
by  plucking  live  birds  in  his  boyhood,  and  applauded  him 


2OO    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

when  upon  one  occasion  he  tore  to  pieces  with  his  hands  a 
tame  dove  belonging  to  his  brother  Abdul  Medjid.  It  is  said 
that  when  he  was  about  sixteen  she  made  him  a  present  of 
a  young  Bulgarian  slave-girl.  This  poor  creature  having 
offended  her  young  lord,  he  tore  her,  as  he  had  done  the 
dove,  limb  from  limb.  His  Kurdish  mother,  without  blam- 
ing her  "young  lion,"  as  she  called  him,  had  the  body  sewn 
up  in  a  sack,  and  sunk  in  the  Bosphorus,  forbidding  all  who 
knew  of  it  on  pain  of  death  to  say  anything  of  the  matter 
to  Sultan  Mahmoud  or  Prince  Abdul  Medjid.  Abdul  Aziz 
cared  nothing  for  study,  — -  reading  and  writing  weaned 
him ;  but  he  was  fond  of  active  sports,  and  was  a  muscular 
Mohammedan.  He  destroyed  the  pretty  theatre  erected 
by  Abdul  Medjid  at  the  Dolma-Baghtche"  Palace,  but  he 
built  a  private  circus  near  his  own  apartments,  the  enter- 
tainments in  which  consisted  of  a  number  of  slaves  being 
forced  to  feign  sleep  till  a  pack  of  hounds  were  let  loose 
upon  them.  The  terrors,  struggles,  sufferings  that  ensued 
were  inexpressibly  delightful  to  the  sultan,  and  he  expected 
every  one  present  to  share  his  enthusiasm.  It  was  by  flat- 
tering him  on  this  point  that  the  Armenian  Seraf  Abraham 
Pasha  (brother-in-law  to  Nubar  Pasha,  the  minister  of  the 
khedive)  gained  his  favor,  and  retained  it  to  the  end  of 
his  reign. 

With  his  natural  love  for  killing  and  savagery,  it  is  fortu- 
nate that  the  history  of  Abdul  Aziz  does  not  exhibit  a  long 
list  of  horrors ;  but  a  public  opinion  against  wanton  cruelty 
had  been  formed  under  Abdul  Medjid,  and  ministers  such 
as  Fuad  Pasha,  and  Aali,  who  were  by  turns  the  grand 
viziers  of  Abdul  Aziz  for  eleven  years,  would  not  have 
countenanced  open  brutality.  By  the  ascendency  of  strong 
minds  over  the  weak  they  held  in  check  the  ferocity  of 
the  savage.  Abdul  Aziz  frequently  endeavored  to  get  rid  of 
his  two  great  ministers.  In  1863  he  peremptorily  dismissed 
them,  and  offered  the  place  of  grand  vizier  to  his  chief 
buffoon.  The  man,  however,  had  more  sense  of  propriety 
than  his  master.  He  declined  so  high  a  post,  and  contented 


SULTAN  ABDUL  AZIZ. 


FOUR  SULTANS.  2OI 

himself  with  one  equally  unsuitable,  —  that  of  minister  of 
public  instruction. 

Fuad  Pasha  accompanied  Abdul  Aziz  on  his  visit  to  the 
Paris  Exposition  in  1867,  and  to  the  courts  of  western 
Europe,  but  he  drew  upon  himself  the  displeasure  of  his 
master  by  his  attempts  to  make  him  conduct  himself  with 
civilized  decorum.  The  imperial  barbarian  brought  back 
from  western  Europe  a  hatred  of  civilization,  founded  most 
probably  on  secret  envy.  He  was  bitter  against  Fuad,  and 
also  against  his  heir-presumptive,  Prince  Murad  Effendi ; 
for  that  young  prince,  by  the  graces  of  his  person,  the 
modesty  of  his  deportment,  and  his  accomplishments,  had 
made  himself  a  great  favorite,  especially  with  the  future 
Emperor  William,  then  king  of  Prussia. 

Abdul  Aziz,  from  the  first  moment  of  his  return  to  his  own 
capital,  cherished  a  project  of  changing  the  old  law  of 
succession,  and  setting  aside  the  late  sultan's  son.  Accord- 
ing to  the  customs  of  the  seraglio,  the  infant  children  of 
the  reigning  race,  unless  born  to  the  sultan  himself,  must  be 
destroyed.  Abdul  Aziz  had  succeeded  in  saving  one  son, 
Yussef  Izzeddin,  born  in  1854,  who  was  doubly  excluded 
from  inheritance,  both  by  the  law  of  succession,  and  by  his 
having  been  born  before  his  father's  accession  to  the 
throne. 

This  project  occupied  the  attention  of  Abdul  Aziz  for  the 
remainder  of  his  reign.  He  tried  to  create  a  precedent  by 
permitting  the  khedive  of  Egypt  to  set  aside  the  legal 
claim  of  an  uncle  and  a  cousin  to  the  vice-regal  throne  ; 
but  Fuad  and  Aali  refused  resolutely  to  favor  their  mas- 
ter's views.  Yussef  Izzeddin  was  a  spoilt  boy,  educated  by 
his  grandmother,  and  inheriting  his  father's  ferocious  pas- 
sions, while  the  true  heir,  the  son  of  Abdul  Medjid,  showed 
all  the  noble  qualities  of  his  dead  father,  and  gave  promise 
of  becoming  a  sovereign  open  to  all  the  good  influences  of 
civilization.  Abdul  Aziz  dared  not  set  himself  in  open 
opposition  to  his  distinguished  ministers,  but  with  bitter 
resentment  waited  till  death  or  opportunity  should  dispose 


2O2     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX'fH  CENTURY. 

of  them.  Meanwhile  he  did  his  best  to  thwart  their  ideas 
of  progress  and  of  policy.  In  vain  did  Fuad  and  Aali 
exert  themselves  to  promulgate  edicts  for  the  protection  of 
Christians;  the  sultan  himself  led  the  opposition  against 
them.  They  were  worn  out  with  the  struggle.  Their 
edicts  remained  inoperative.  They  died  within  a  few 
months  of  each  other. 

Both  Fuad  and  Aali  were  aware  that  reforms  in  law  and 
politics  should  be  preceded  by  reforms  in  education  and 
manners.  Each  had  but  one  wife,  and  on  one  occasion, 
only  one,  they  induced  the  sultan  to  sit  at  the  same  table 
with  other  persons,  —  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  foreign  am- 
bassadors, and  his  own  ministers.  It  was  the  first  time  that 
the  Commander  of  the  Faithful  had  eaten  meat  with  any 
man,  the  rule  being  that  the  head  of  the  Moslem  faith  (like 
the  pope)  must  always  eat  alone. 

Railroads  and  schools  were  projected  and  patronized  by 
Fuad  and  Aali;  but  the  trunk  line  of  railroad  between 
Constantinople  and  Belgrade  was  opposed  by  the  Servians, 
till  at  last  the  contractors  threw  up  the  work,  having  only 
completed  short  lines  of  unconnected  railway  in  places 
where  the  right  was  conceded  to  them. 

The  schools  fared  little  better,  —  only  one,  for  boys  of  all 
religions,  came  into  successful  operation ;  but  the  navy  was 
improved,  the  soldiers  were  better  armed.  This  was,  how- 
ever, all  that  Turkey  gained  from  its  enormous  foreign  loans. 
Vast  sums  went  into  the  hands  of  middlemen  and  specu- 
lators, among  them  the  sultan  himself,  who  speedily  learned 
all  civilization  could  teach  him  of  the  modus  operandi  of 
the  stock  exchange. 

Money  once  obtained,  the  sultan  spent  it  in  absurd  build- 
ing projects.  He  was  fond  of  jewelry,  and  spent  vast  sums 
on  precious  stones,  particularly  diamonds.  He  had  no 
knowledge  of  painting,  but  had  a  passion  for  buying  indiffer- 
ent daubs.  Sculpture  is  an  art  forbidden  by  his  faith,  but 
he  took  a  fancy  to  set  up  an  equestrian  statue  of  himself  in 
Constantinople.  The  work  was  executed  at  Munich,  but 


FOUR  SULTANS. 


203 


when  it  reached  his  capital  it  was  such  a  cause  of  scandal 
to  the  softas  (a  class  answering  to  the  scribes  and  lawyers 
of  the  New  Testament)  that  it  was  hidden  away  for  several 
years,  and  recast  into  cannon  on  the  death  of  its  original. 
His  personal  expenses  were  enormous.  He  had  a  nervous 
horror  of  fire,  and  one  of  his  freaks  was  to  destroy  all  the 
beautiful  furniture  in  the  Dolma-Baghtche  Palace,  and  replace 
it  by  iron-work.  One  of  his  devices  for  raising  money  was 
frequently  to  command  his  vassal  the  khedive,  to  visit  him 
at  Constantinople,  well  knowing  that  he  dared  not  present 
himself  before  his  sovereign  without  magnificent  gifts.  On 
one  of  these  occasions,  in  July,  1873,  the  present  to  the 
sultan  amounted  to  three  million  and  a  half  of  dollars, 
besides  backshish  distributed  to  his  princes  and  ministers. 
Looking  to  future  favor  the  khedive  offered  on  this  occa- 
sion six  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  heir  of  the  Turkish 
throne,  but  Prince  Murad  refused  it,  saying :  "  My  dignity 
will  not  permit  me  to  receive  your  money  as  a  gift ;  still  less 
would  I  take  it  as  the  price  of  a  protection  which  ought 
neither  to  be  bought  nor  sold." 

At  that  moment  the  young  prince  was  pecuniarily  em- 
barrassed, owing  to  his  relations  with  his  uncle  Abdul  Aziz  • 
and  this  leads  us  to  speak  of  his  early  life  more  particularly. 

His  mother  was  a  Circassian.  He  was  born  Sept.  21, 
1840.  His  father  early  removed  him  from  the  pernicious 
influences  of  the  harem,  and  placed  him  under  manly  and 
able  tutors.  Abdul  Medjid  superintended  his  boy's  educa- 
tion himself,  and  was  often  present  at  his  lessons.  He 
called  him,  affectionately,  "  Muraddin,"  or  "  ray  Murad ;  " 
and  twice  a  week  a  report  of  the  boy's  progress  was  sent 
in  to  him. 

Docile,  patient,  and  gifted  with  a  good  memory,  the  child 
soon  learned  to  read  and  write  his  own  language.  A  talent 
for  composition  developed  itself  as  he  grew  up,  and  his 
poems,  though  not  numerous,  were  remarkable  for  their 
delicate  taste  and  elegance  of  diction. 

Besides  Turkish  and  Arabic,  he  studied  Turkish  history, 


204    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX?"  CENTURY. 

arithmetic,  geometry,  and  drawing.  When  he  was  fourteen 
he  began  to  study  French.  His  teacher  was  the  future 
grand  vizier  Edhem  Pasha,  who  had  been  the  instructor  of 
Abdul  Medjid. 

The  history  of  Edhem  is  a  curious  one.  He  was  born 
of  Greek  parents,  and  saved  from  the  massacre  of  Scio  in 
1822.  He  was  then  sold  as  a  slave  in  Constantinople,  and 
bought  by  the  grand  vizier,  who  sent  him  to  Paris,  whence 
he  returned  a  bachelor  of  arts,  and  one  of  the  best  pupils 
at  the  Nicole  des  Mines.  He  was  advanced  to  high  digni- 
ties, was  several  times  minister,  and  was  made  grand  vizier, 
Feb.  5,  1877,  after  the  unjust  dismission  of  Miclhat  Pasha. 

Murad  soon  learned  to  read,  write,  and  understand 
French,  but  he  never  could  speak  it  fluently.  Still,  during 
his  journey  in  western  Europe  in  1867  he  made  himself 
understood  in  the  courts  he  visited,  and  his  conversation 
made  everywhere  a  favorable  impression.  One  reason  why 
he  made  no  great  progress  in  languages  (the  most  impor- 
tant accomplishment  for  a  sovereign)  was  that  his  whole 
soul  was  absorbed  in  a  passion  for  music.  He  not  only 
played  the  most  difficult  music  well,  but  he  solaced  himself 
with  musical  composition,  frequently  setting  his  own  words 
to  his  own  airs.  All  his  music  was,  however,  plaintive ;  it 
seemed  to  breathe  a  presentiment  of  his  own  sad  destiny. 

Subsequently  Murad  developed  a  taste  for  architecture, 
less  hurtful  to  his  temperament  than  his  love  for  music,  but 
more  dangerous  to  his  purse ;  for  during  the  latter  years  of 
Abdul  Aziz's  reign  his  love  of  building  brought  him  great 
pecuniary  embarrassment. 

He  was  constitutionally  sweet-tempered,  and  was  beloved 
by  those  about  him ;  but  he  appears  to  have  been  deficient 
in  that  strength  of  character  which  no  Turk,  if  it  be  not  his 
by  nature,  can  acquire  under  the  enervating  conditions  of 
his  domestic  life.  Abdul  Medjid  emancipated  his  brothers 
and  his  sons  from  that  law  of  Mohammedan  etiquette  which 
confined  all  the  princes  of  the  blood-royal  to  the  bounds  of 
the  seraglio. 


FOUR  SULTANS.  205 

Great  was  the  grief  of  Abdul  Medjib's  children  when  that 
enlightened  sovereign  and  kind  parent,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
eight,  was  gathered  to  his  fathers  of  the  race  of  Othman. 
Reschid  (or  Richard),  the  third  son,  now  heir  presumptive 
of  his  brother  Abdul  Hamid,  was  on  the  point  of  commit- 
ting suicide.  Murad  alone  accepted  his  changed  position 
with  composure,  protecting  and  comforting  his  younger 
brothers. 

Abdul  Aziz,  who  had  promised  him  many  favors  on  his 
accession,  by  no  means  kept  his  word.  In  1863  Ismail 
Pasha,  who  had  succeeded  his  uncle  Said  as  viceroy  of 
Egypt,  came  to  Constantinople  to  receive  his  investiture  as 
khedive.  In  gratitude  for  the  permission  to  leave  his 
throne  to  his  own  son,  according  to  the  European  law  of 
succession,  he  offered  a  magnificent  steam-yacht  to  his 
suzerain.  Abdul  Aziz  was  delighted  with  the  gift,  and 
instantly  embarked  for  Egypt,  taking  with  him  Murad, 
whom  he  appeared  afraid  to  leave  behind.  On  their  return 
from  this  excursion  he  manifested  great  jealousy  of  his 
young  heir,  whom  he  was  always  suspecting  of  conspiracy. 
On  one  occasion  he  confined  him  for  a  year  to  the 
boundaries  of  the  seraglio.  In  1867  Abdul  Aziz  visited,  as 
we  have  said,  the  Paris  Exposition.  The  origin  of  the 
troubles  of  1876  and  1877  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  was, 
it  is  said,  the  burthen  of  the  increased  taxes  imposed  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  this  journey.  Abdul  Aziz  was  accom- 
panied by  his  own  son,  Yussef  Izzeddin,  and  his  two 
nephews,  Murad  and  Abdul  Hamid.  Before  reaching 
Marseilles,  however,  his  anger  against  Murad  broke  out 
afresh,  and  he  was  anxious  to  leave  him  on  board  the  yacht, 
or  send  him  back  to  Constantinople.  Fuad  Pasha  here 
interposed,  objecting  that  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  would 
not  understand  such  treatment  of  the  heir  presumptive. 

Under  this  pressure  the  sultan  was  obliged  to  yield, 
but  everywhere  during  their  journey  he  found  fresh  occa- 
sion to  be  jealous  of  his  handsome  nephew.  He  was 
continually  complaining  of  his  conduct,  which  appeared  to 


2O6    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX TH  CENTURY, 

others  to  be  marked  by  tact  and  good  sense  in  every 
particular.  He  took  it  extremely  ill  that  Queen  Victoria, 
Napoleon  III.,  and  the  king  of  Prussia,  should  show  more 
attention  to  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven,  the  heir-pre- 
sumptive of  the  Turkish  Empire,  than  to  his  own  ill-condi- 
tioned son.  When  they  got  back  to  Constantinople  Murad 
had  to  pay  for  his  popularity  in  London,  Paris,  and  Berlin. 
He  was  kept  like  a  state  prisoner  in  his  own  apartments  in 
the  Dolma-Baghtche  Palace,  or  in  his  country  house  of 
Kourbalidere.  But  his  servants  frequently  connived  at  his 
escape  for  a  few  hours.  On  these  occasions  he  would 
always  make  his  way  to  the  house  of  a  French  friend  at 
Pera.  "  Now  then,"  he  would  cry,  "  for  a  visit  to  the 
French  Theatre  ! " 

Such  visits  were  very  dangerous  both  for  the  prince  and 
his  accomplice.  The  disguise  of  a  false  beard  and  a  felt 
hat  might  easily  have  been  penetrated  by  the  eyes  of  some 
old  pasha ;  and  frequently  the  prince,  becoming  alarmed 
for  his  companion's  safety,  would  say :  "  Let  us  go  home 
to  your  house.  I  will  play  and  sing  for  you,  and  then  we 
can  talk  philosophy." 

He  is  said  to  have  been  a  good  converser.  He  had,  of 
course,  not  what  would  have  been  called  a  liberal  educa- 
tion for  a  European,  but  he  could  talk  agreeably  on  a  large 
variety  of  subjects,  and  put  questions  like  a  man  who  wants 
to  know  and  understand.  He  was  tolerant  and  liberal  both 
in  religion  and  politics,  —  almost  too  liberal  perhaps,  for  his 
French  friends  seem  to  have  been  men  of  very  advanced 
ideas.  He  often  expressed  his  earnest  hope  that  when  he 
came  to  the  throne  he  might  be  able  to  promote  self- 
government  among  his  people. 

He  once  employed  a  French  lawyer  in  Constantinople  to 
draw  him  up  a  constitution,  but  the  draft  was  never  fin- 
ished. Murad  himself,  however,  composed  a  paper  in 
which  his  wishes,  on  the  subject  were  set  down. 

No  foreigner  was  allowed  to  visit  him  openly.  Even  Sir 
Henry  Elliott,  the  English  ambassador,  was  denied  access 


FOUR  SULTANS. 


207 


to  him.  A  Frenchman,  however,  by  the  aid  of  one  of  the 
prince's  tradespeople,  made  his  way  to  his  country  place, 
and  has  left  an  account  of  the  interview :  — 

"  We  reached  the  tchiflik,  or  country  seat,  of  Kourbalidere," 
he  says,  "  which  was  surrounded  by  a  high  white  wall  with  an 
enormous  entrance  gate.  '  We  must  go  in  by  a  little  door,' 
said  my  cicerone,  pointing  to  a  wicket.  He  rang ;  a  black 
eunuch  opened  it  with  due  precaution,  but  on  recognizing  my 
companion  he  welcomed  him  politely,  and  led  the  way  to  a 
summer  house  in  a  beautiful  garden.  There,  in  a  room  luxuri- 
ously furnished,  Prince  Murad  stood,  expecting  our  arrival. 
Without  permitting  us  to  complete  our  Oriental  salutation,  he 
held  out  his  hand  smiling,  and  invited  us  to  be  seated.  He 
wore  an  English  morning  suit  of  light  gray  cloth,  the  only  sign 
of  the  Turk  about  him  being  a  fez.  He  was  small,  but  well- 
made.  He  looked  in  good  health,  and  had  a  clear  complexion. 
He  was  thirty-three,  but  looked  younger.  His  eyes  were  bright 
and  soft,  intelligent  and  tender. 

"  The  conversation  turned  on  Europe,  which  gave  him  the 
opportunity  of  speaking  of  his  travels.  The  city  he  most  ad- 
mired was  Paris  ;  the  country  he  liked  best  was  England ;  the 
sovereign  who  had  most  impressed  him  was  the  king  of  Prussia. 

"  '  When  we  were  staying  at  Potsdam,'  he  said,  '  I  left  my 
room  early  one  morning,  and  went  into  the  garden.  I  saw 
some  one  at  a  little  distance  talking  quite  familiarly  with  a 
sentinel.  My  surprise  was  great  when  I  recognized  the  king 
of  Prussia.  When  he  saw  me  he  came  toward  me,  quitting 
the  sentinel  with  a  few  parting  words  and  a  kind  nod.  "  Ah  !  " 
said  I  to  myself,  "  now  I  behold  a  model  king,  without  pride  or 
pretension."  I  gave  him  at  once  my  affection  and  esteem.' " 

Murad  then  asked  the  visitor  about  his  own  travels,  and 
appeared  particularly  interested  in  his  account  of  the  United 
States.  "  If  I  am  ever  sultan,"  he  said,  "  I  hope  to  see 
Mussulmans  and  Christians,  Jews  and  idolaters  (if  there 
be  any  in  my  dominions)  sitting  on  the  same  bench,  and 
learning  to  look  upon  each  other  as  brothers." 

The  conversation  lasted  an  hour  and  a  half.  It  appeared 
to  give  great  pleasure  to  Murad,  who  requested  his  French 
guest  to  correspond  with  him.  This  led  to  a  series  of 


208    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

letters  on  the  affairs  of  Europe,  which  lasted  several  years. 
Several  of  Murad's  letters  upon  Turkish  politics  were  pub- 
lished anonymously  by  his  correspondent  in  one  of  the 
French  papers. 

"  You  cannot  imagine,"  said  Murad  to  another  friend, 
"  what  disgust  and  weariness  I  sometimes  feel  when  sur- 
rounded by  the  women  of  my  harem.  The  abject  submis- 
sion that  prevails  among  them  withers  the  germs  of  love. 
I  get  so  tired  of  this  domestic  life  that  it  is  the  cause  of  my 
taking  more  wine  and  mastic  (the  Levant  brandy)  than  is 
good  for  me." 

Alas  !  this  taste,  which  had  hastened  his  good  father's 
end,  was  to  wreck  the  career  of  a  prince  endowed  by  nature 
with  every  good  disposition.  It  was  also  unfortunate  that 
Dr.  Capoleone,  who  had  been  assigned  to  him  as  his  physi- 
cian, was  an  ignorant,  low-minded  Italian,  who  cared  more 
to  minister  to  his  patient's  weaknesses  than  to  help  him  to 
overcome  them. 

A  Greek  doctor  of  a  different  stamp,  Dr.  Mavroyeni, 
had  been  assigned  to  Abdul  Hamid.  That  prince's  mother 
had  died  of  consumption,  and  his  constitution  was  delicate. 
He,  too,  had  inherited  a  taste  for  drink,  but  Dr.  Mavroyeni 
assured  him  it  would  be  his  destruction.  "  Then  I  will 
never  touch  wine  or  liquor  again  !  "  said  Abdul  Hamid, 
and  he  kept  his  word.  Murad  might  have  made  a  similar 
resolution  had  his  doctor  been  a  man  who  could  have 
inspired  him  to  make  it.  Italian,  Greek,  Jewish,  and 
Armenian  doctors  have  often  played  important  parts  in 
Turkish  history.  Dr.  Mavroyeni  contributed  largely  to 
Abdul  Hamid's  elevation  to  the  caliphate.  Dr.  Capoleone, 
on  the  contrary,  by  his  ignorance  and  malpractice,  led  to 
the  sad  fate  of  the  elder  brother. 

After  the  deaths  of  his  great  ministers  Aali  and  Fuad 
Pasha,  Abdul  Aziz  had  no  check  upon  his  passions.  He 
had  eight  grand  viziers  in  five  years,  the  worst  of  whom 
was  Mahmoud  Nedim  Pasha,  who,  like  his  master,  was 
bent  on  increasing  his  own  wealth  by  every  means  in  his 


FOUR  SULTANS. 

power.  To  this  end  he  became  a  creature  of  General 
Ignatieff,  the  Russian  ambassador,  and  was  guided  by  his 
advice  in  all  matters  of  government.  He  belonged  neither 
to  Young  Turkey  nor  the  old  school,  but  was  influenced 
solely  by  self-interest  and  cupidity.  In  three  years,  under 
his  administration,  the  Turkish  debt  increased  nearly  four 
hundred  millions  of  dollars.  The  substitution  of  Yussef 
Izzeddin  for  Prince  Murad  as  heir  presumptive  was  a  point 
on  which  the  Russian  ambassador  agreed  with  the  sultan 
and  the  grand  vizier.  He  urged,  however,  that  the  change 
in  the  law  of  succession  should  be  effected  without  violence, 
and  wear  the  appearance  of  a  salutary  reform.  A  procla- 
mation to  that  effect  had  been  several  times  on  the  point 
of  being  promulgated,  but  was  postponed  on  each  occasion 
in  consequence  of  the  opposition  of  England,  the  court  astrol- 
oger, and  the  sheik-ul- Islam,  or  chief  interpreter  of  the  Ko- 
ran, who  utterly  refused  to  issue  a  fetva  contrary  to  the  spirit 
and  the  letter  of  the  cheri,  or  Turkish  unwritten  constitution. 

In  1876,  however,  the  hesitation  of  the  Sultan  Abdul 
Aziz  came  to  an  end.  The  proclamation  was  to  take  place 
on  the  25th  of  June.  Murad  was  sounded  as  to  his  will- 
ingness to  resign  his  rights,  and  peremptorily  refused  the 
offers  made  to  him.  He  also  refused  with  horror  the  offer 
of  some  Greeks  to  create  a  disturbance  while  the  sultan 
should  be  at  public  prayers,  and  in  the  confusion  to  kill 
Abdul  Aziz. 

"  If  I  am  raised  to  the  throne  because  my  people  wish  me 
to  reign,"  he  said,  "  so  be  it.  But  no  violence  shall  be 
offered  to  the  person  of  my  uncle.  I  should  detest  a  throne 
that  had  cost  a  murder.  I  shudder  at  the  bare  idea  of  such 
a  crime."  "But  suppose,"  said  one  of  those  about  him, 
"  that  there  was  no  alternative  between  his  death  and 
yours?"  "Then  let  me  die,"  was  the  prince's  answer. 
There  seemed  no  little  probability  of  this  event  when  the 
eight  male  descendants  of  Abdul  Medjid  received  a  com- 
mand to  move  into  the  Dolma-Baghtche'  Palace,  and  there 
await  the  sultan's  orders. 


210    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

At  that  time  all  classes  in  Constantinople  seemed  ripe  for 
revolution.  Abdul  Aziz  had  made  young  Yussef  Izzeddin 
commander  in  the  army,  and  had  placed  a  younger  son, 
just  ten  years  old,  at  the  head  of  the  navy ;  but  such  ap- 
pointments did  not  compensate  the  soldiers  or  the  sailors 
for  arrears  of  pay.  Young  Turkey  was  indignant  at  the 
banishment  of  some  literary  men,  who  were  its  leaders. 
Old  Turkey  was  opposed  to  impious  changes  in  the  law  of 
succession.  Old  Turks  and  young  Turks  agreed  in  hating 
Russia,  and  blushed  to  see  the  subservience  of  the  Com- 
mander of  the  Faithful  to  his  hereditary  enemy. 

Jews,  Greeks,  and  Armenians  had  all  causes  of  complaint 
against  the  government  of  Abdul  Aziz.  Even  his  court  and 
household  despised  him.  He  was  known  to  be  dishonest 
whenever  he  could  see  a  chance  to  gain.  When  not  roused 
by  temporary  fits  of  savage  anger,  he  was  grim,  torpid,  and 
abusive.  Yet  two  women  in  his  household  loved  him,  — 
his  mother,  who,  with  all  her  faults,  was  devoted  to  her  son, 
and  his  third  wife,  or  more  properly  the  third  woman  who 
had  borne  him  children ;  for,  by  Mohammedan  custom,  no 
legal  marriage  is  possible  to  a  sultan.  This  girl  was  a 
Circassian.  She  loved  him  with  such  fervor  that  her  end 
was  hastened  by  his  death.  She  died,  partly  of  lung  dis- 
ease, and  partly  of  grief,  only  a  week  after  him.  She  was 
sister  (or  near  relative)  to  Hassan,  who  avenged  her 
death,  and  that  of  the  master  she  had  loved,  by  a  wholesale 
massacre. 

In  the  spring  of  1876  the  question  of  succession  had 
produced  a  struggle  between  English  and  Russian  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  Turkey.  England  favored  Murad  and  the 
legitimate  succession ;  Russia  lent  herself  to  the  views  of 
Abdul  Aziz,  and  was  anxious  to  see  Yussef  Izzeddin  pro- 
claimed heir  to  the  throne.  The  English  fleet  was  ordered 
to  Besika  Bay,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Dardanelles,  and  the 
Russian  government  promised  the  sultan  material  support  in 
case  of  difficulty. 

The  most  influential  adherent  of  Murad  at  this  period 


FOUR  SULTANS.  211 

was  Midhat  Pasha,  a  statesman  on  whom  had  fallen  the 
mantles  of  Aali  and  Fuad  Pasha.  Midhat  planned  at  this 
crisis  a  revolution.  He  had  great  influence  with  the  softas, 
the  students  and  interpreters  of  the  Koran,  of  whom  there 
were  from  thirty  to  forty  thousand  in  Constantinople.  His 
chief  task  in  the  affair,  however,  was  that  of  buying  the 
neutrality  of  the  Grand  Vizier  Mahmoud  Nedim  Pasha. 
This  end  Midhat  successfully  accomplished,  and  the  first 
fruits  of  the  negotiation  were  that  the  grand  vizier  declined 
Russian  assistance  in  the  event  of  an  insurrection.  A  rising 
of  sojtas  and  of  workingmen  employed  by  the  government 
soon  after  took  place.  The  sultan  becoming  alarmed,  sent 
to  the  mosqes  to  inquire  what  were  the  demands  and  desires 
of  the  softas.  He  was  answered,  the  immediate  dismissal 
of  his  grand  vizier  and  the  shetk-ul- Islam,  and  the  substi- 
tution of  Midhat  Pasha  and  Ha'irullah  Effendi. 

The  sultan  yielded  immediately.  He  only  stipulated,  in 
deference  to  Russia,  that  Ruchdi,  and  not  Midhat,  should  be 
nominated  grand  vizier,  and  that  Midhat  should  content 
himself  with  a  subordinate  position,  while  Hairullah  should 
take  charge  of  the  religion  of  the  State. 

Ruchdi  was  a  man  amiable  and  undecided.  In  politics 
he  was,  what  is  called  in  western  Europe,  a  conservative. 
He  was  willing,  however,  to  swim  with  the  current,  and  at 
this  crisis  his  appointment  was  acceptable  to  Midhat  Pasha. 
The  sultan,  as  if  to  make  up  for  his  grand  vizier's  want  of 
will,  nominated  Hussein  Avni,  the  incarnation  of  energy, 
to  be  war  minister.  By  this  time  there  was  serious  revolt 
in  the  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina. 

The  history  of  Hussein  Avni  is  a  curious  one.  He  was 
born  in  a  district  of  Asia  Minor,  known  as  Sparta,  because 
peopled  originally  by  a  Spartan  colony ;  and  he  exhibited 
all  the  daring,  courage,  and  pertinacity  which  distinguished 
the  comrades  of  Leonidas  among  the  people  of  Greece. 
When  he  was  sixteen  he  went  forth  to  seek  his  fortune  at 
Constantinople.  He  entered  a  mosque  as  student  in  law 
and  theology,  having  an  uncle  who  served  as  khodja  there, 


212    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX "*"  CENTURY. 

that  is,  as  teacher  and  preacher.  But  he  soon  found  he 
had  mistaken  his  vocation.  He  obtained  an  appointment 
to  the  Military  Academy,  and  remained  attached  to  it  till  he 
was  thirty-three,  first  as  student,  then  as  sub-professor,  with 
the  rank  of  major.  During  those  years  he  translated  sev- 
eral French  books  upon  tactics,  which  brought  him  into 
notice,  and  opened  to  him  a  career.  He  distinguished 
himself  in  the  Crimean  War,  and  was  chief  of  staff  to  Omar 
Pasha.  At  one  time  he  was  made  grand  vizier,  because 
both  Abdul  Aziz  and  the  valide  believed  that  he  would  lend 
himself  to  their  scheme  of  substituting  Yussef  Izzeddin  for 
Murad  as  heir  to  the  Turkish  throne ;  but  Hussein  was  too 
good  a  patriot  to  favor  Russian  views. 

When  he  lost  the  grand-viziership,  on  the  restoration  of 
Mahmoud  Nedim  to  the  favor  of  the  sultan,  he  set  out  on  a 
tour  to  western  Europe,  where  he  was  particularly  delighted 
with  England  and  her  institutions ;  but  he  was  suddenly 
recalled.  The  sultan  flattered  himself  that  a  man  of 
Hussein's  energy  and  determination  would  easily,  as  seras- 
kier,  or  general-in-chief,  control  the  revolutionary  element, 
and  hold  it  down  with  an  iron  hand.  He  had  not  miscal- 
culated the  energy  of  his  war  minister  ;  but  he  was  mistaken 
in  the  direction  of  the  iron  hand. 

An  understanding  speedily  took  place  between  Midhat 
Pasha  and  Hussein  Avni.  A  plan  of  reform  was  drawn  up, 
combining  equality  of  all  persons  before  the  law,  a  parlia- 
ment, which  should  control  the  public  purse,  the  responsi- 
bility of  ministers,  and  greater  freedom  of  the  press.  On 
the  3ist  of  May  the  so/fas  and  others  were  to  meet  in 
one  of  the  grand  mosques,  and  send  a  delegation  to  request 
the  proposed  reforms  from  Ruchdi,  the  new  grand  vizier. 
If  the  sultan  consented,  giving  substantial  guarantees  for  his 
good  faith,  the  revolution  would  be  accomplished.  If  he 
refused  or  hesitated,  he  would  be  dethroned,  and  his  next 
heir  would  be  proclaimed  by  the  title  of  Murad  V. 

Up  to  this  point  Prince  Murad  was  kept  informed  of  all 
that  was  going  on,  notwithstanding  his  state  of  close  seclu- 


POUR  SULTANS. 

sion.  He  approved  all  the  projects  of  reform,  and  con- 
sented to  accept  the  throne  if  offered  to  him,  but  on  con- 
dition that  his  dethroned  uncle  should  be  treated  honorably, 
and  that  no  indignity  should  be  inflicted  on  him  except  the 
loss  of  his  power  and  prerogatives.  But  a  mine  was  being 
dug  beneath  this  project  of  a  popular  revolution,  —  Hussein 
Avni  was  determined  to  forestall  it  by  a  coup  d'etat. 

Midhat,  Ruchdi,  Ahmet  Kaiserli  (the  head  of  the  navy), 
and  Hairullah  Effendi  the  sheik-ul- Islam,  all  gave  in  their 
adherence  to  the  plan  of  Hussein  Avni.  His  Spartan  spirit 
made  him  despise  mixed  multitudes,  and  a  high-handed 
movement  was  far  more  to  his  taste  than  the  underhand 
intrigues  of  the  originally  projected  revolution. 

Already  the  sheik-ul- Islam  had  prepared  a  fetva  to 
authorize  the  deposition  of  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful. 
It  was  in  these  words  :  — 

Question.  If  the  Chief  of  Believers  gives  proof  of  derange- 
ment, or  of  ignorance  in  public  affairs,  if  he  employs  the  public 
revenues  for  his  own  personal  ends  to  an  extent  ruinous  to  the 
nation  and  the  State,  if  he  causes  confusion  between  things 
spiritual  and  things  temporal,  and  if  his  continuance  in  power 
is  hurtful  to  the  State  and  to  the  nation,  may  he  be  deposed  ? 

Answer.  The  law  of  the  Prophet  says:  Yes! 

Written  by  the  humble  Hassan  Ha'irullah,  to  whom  may  God 
be  merciful ! 

Neither  Hussein  Avni  nor  Midhat  thought  it  best  to 
inform  Prince  Murad  of  this  change  of  programme. 

On  the  night  of  Monday,  May  30,  1876,  the  minister  of 
war  and  the  director  of  the  Military  Academy  had  their 
troops  under  arms,  ready  to  march,  as  they  were  led  to 
believe,  into  Bulgaria.  At  the  appointed  hour  they  were 
led  to  the  palace,  whose  water-front  was  already  guarded  by 
the  boats  of  the  ironclads. 

All  this  took  place  after  midnight.  The  night  was  dark 
and  rainy ;  the  sound  of  the  waves  upon  the  beach  con- 
cealed slight  noises.  All  in  the  palace  lay  asleep.  Murad 
was  sleeping  heavily,  when  a  quarter  before  three  the 


214     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY, 

seraskier,  Hussein  Avni,  entered  his  chamber.  He  shook 
the  prince's  arm  and  begged  him  to  rise  and  dress  himself. 
Seen  unexpectedly  at  that  hour  and  under  those  circum- 
stances, the  stern  and  bearded  countenance  of  Hussein 
Avni  inspired  Murad  with  nervous  terror. 

"  What  is  the  matter?  "  he  asked,  his  first  thought  being 
that  his  uncle  had  discovered  all,  and  had  sent  this  man  to 
murder  him. 

"  The  palace  is  surrounded  by  soldiers.  Abdul  Aziz  can- 
not escape.  At  break  of  day  he  will  be  told  that  he  has 
ceased  to  reign,  and  that  his  lawful  heir,  Murad  V.,  has  been 
proclaimed  sultan." 

These  words  in  a  harsh  voice  frightened  the  prince,  who 
unhappily  during  the  suspense  and  excitement  of  the  past 
few  days  had  been  taking  wine  too  freely.  He  refused  to 
get  up,  saying :  "  I  had  rather  be  murdered  in  my  bed." 

"  And  so  you  will  be  if  you  do  not  rise  and  come  with  me 
at  once,"  was  the  stern  answer;  "but  to  allay  your  suspi- 
cions take  the  revolver  hanging  at  your  bed's  head,  and  at 
the  smallest  sign  of  treason  shoot  me  through  the  brain." 

At  last,  half  reassured,  Murad  got  up,  took  the  revolver, 
and  followed  Hussein  Avni.  As  they  were  leaving  the 
palace  they  were  stopped  by  a  sentinel.  The  seraskier  had 
forgotten  the  password.  With  great  presence  of  mind  he 
opened  his  cloak,  and  showed  his  breast  covered  with 
orders.  Then  roughly  pushing  the  sentry  aside,  he  said  : 
"  Fool !  cannot  you  recognize  your  commander-in-chief  and 
his  aide-de-camp  ?  "  The  man  drew  back,  and  they  passed 
out,  —  the  one  bold  and  self-possessed,  the  other  suspicious 
and  unnerved. 

A  caique  was  waiting  for  them ;  they  entered  it  with  a 
few  followers.  Murad  was  to  cross  the  Golden  Horn  and 
so  reach  Stamboul,  but  Hussein  Avni,  who  had  some  orders 
to  give  the  fleet,  insisted  on  passing  under  the  stern  of  an 
ironclad.  This  put  fresh  apprehension  into  the  heart  of 
the  new  sultan.  He  thought  that  the  steamer  was  to  be 
his  prison,  and  took  no  pains  to  conceal  his  great  alarm. 


SULTAN  MURAD  V. 


FOUR  SULTANS.  21$ 

Fortunately,  the  caique  was  detained  only  a  few  moments, 
and  those  in  her  landed  safely,  without  further  adventure,  on 
the  beach  at  Constantinople.  Thence  they  drove  to  the 
war-office,  —  the  seraskieriat. 

All  the  members  of  the  divan,  including  Midhat  Pasha, 
the  sheik-ul- Islam,  and  the  sheriff  of  Mecca,  were  awaiting 
their  arrival.  There  were  several  iilemas,  and  several 
Christian  dignitaries  in  the  assembly.  The  act  of  the 
deposition  of  Abdul  Aziz  was  then  read,  after  which  that 
which  proclaimed  Murad  his  successor. 

When  a  salute  of  one  hundred  and  one  guns  announced 
what  had  happened  to  the  public,  there  was  a  general 
explosion  of  enthusiasm.  No  regrets  were  expressed  for 
the  fall  of  Abdul  Aziz.  Western  Europe  and  Turkey  were 
of  one  accord,  but  it  is  said  that  when  the  Emperor  Alex- 
ander of  Russia,  at  Ems,  got  a  telegram  with  the  news  from 
General  Ignatieff  he  sat  for  ten  minutes  without  uttering  a 
word. 

From  the  war-office  Murad  drove  to  the  water-side, 
through  an  enthusiastic  crowd  of  his  new  subjects.  He 
embarked  in  a  caique  with  forty-eight  oars,  which  rowed 
him  back  to  the  Dolma-Baghtche  Palace.  On  his  way  he 
met  a  smaller  boat  with  his  uncle  on  board  of  her.  Murad's 
mind  had  been  diverted  from  the  terrors  of  the  night  by 
the  excitements  of  the  morning,  but  this  spectacle  filled 
him  with  deep  pity.  He  shed  tears,  and  shedding  tears 
re-entered  the  imperial  abode. 

Murad,  on  his  arrival  at  the  Dolma-Baghtche'  went 
through  the  ceremony  of  biat,  equivalent  to  the  hand- 
kissing  of  European  monarchies.  The  same  name  is  still 
applied  to  the  same  ceremony  at  the  Spanish  court,  and  to 
official  receptions  in  the  South  American  republics  of  Span- 
ish origin.  The  levee  was  altogether  informal,  —  more  like 
a  presidential  reception  at  the  White  House  than  a  court 
held  by  the  representative  of  the  dynasty  of  Othman  ;  and 
Murad  was  well  pleased  to  see  court  etiquette  and  dignity 
disappear.  The  next  day  he  put  forth  his  first  proclama- 


2l6      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

tion,  announcing  a  policy  of  reform ;  he  had  himself  drawn 
up  the  first  draft,  which  was  by  no  means  approved  by  his 
advisers,  and  the  document  as  it  appeared  was  very  far 
from  expressing  his  views. 

On  Friday,  June  2,  1876,  took  place  his  first  selamick. 
Ill  or  well,  a  sultan  is  obliged  to  go  publicly  to  prayers 
each  Friday  in  the  mosque.  This  ceremony  is  called  the 
selamick.  If  it  be  omitted  for  two  weeks  the  empire, 
according  to  Mussulman  belief,  is  in  the  greatest  danger. 
The  national  prosperity  depends  upon  these  public  prayers 
of  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful. 

Another  ceremony  ought  to  have  taken  place  that  day> 
equivalent  to  the  Christian  ceremony  of  coronation  ;  but  the 
officer  whose  hereditary  right  it  was  to  gird  the  sultan  with 
the  sword  of  Othman  in  the  mosque  of  Eyoub,  was  unfor- 
tunately absent  in  Asia  Minor.  He  was  summoned  by 
telegraph,  but  did  not  arrive  in  time  to  accomplish  his  duty 
on  that  Friday.  Week  after  week  he  waited  in  Constanti- 
nople, but  the  important  rite  could  never  on  any  succeeding 
Friday  be  performed.  Perhaps,  had  Sultan  Murad  been 
solemnly  girt  with  the  sword  of  sovereignty,  there  might  have 
been  more  hesitation  in  setting  him  aside. 

On  the  triumphal  day  of  his  first  selamick  he  rode  smiling 
and  happy  to  the  mosque  of  St.  Sophia;  by  a  strange 
coincidence  it  was  the  feast-day  of  Saint  Constantine.  The 
enthusiasm  of  the  multitude  was  excessive.  He  was  saluted 
as  "  the  called  for,"  "  the  desired,"  "  the  beloved."  So/fas, 
raised  Korans  in  their  hands ;  women  flung  flowers  in  his 
path.  Several  times  the  Greeks  tried  to  take  the  horses 
from  his  carriage.  Forgetting  the  restraints  of  Oriental 
etiquette,  Murad  bowed  to  right  and  left  like  Western 
sovereigns. 

On  his  return  home  the  seraskier  was  announced.  The 
sight  of  Hussein  Avni  had  been  painful  to  the  sultan  ever 
since  the  night  of  his  accession. 

After  a  military  salute  the  minister  grimly  observed  that 
a  wise  and  venerable  custom  forbade  sultans  to  respond  to 


FOUR  SULTANS.  2 1/ 

the  acclamations  of  a  multitude.  Already,  under  pretext 
of  imaginary  conspiracies,  Hussein  Avni  was  keeping  the 
palace  guarded  by  his  soldiers,  and  was  refusing  admittance 
to  the  sultan's  oldest  and  most  intimate  friends.  He  him- 
self slept  for  three  nights  in  the  palace,  and  the  unfortunate 
prince,  so  long  a  prisoner  during  his  uncle's  reign,  found 
himself  in  closer  captivity  than  ever. 

This  was  ill  calculated  to  calm  his  nerves,  already  un- 
strung by  his  terrors  on  the  night  of  his  accession.  His 
physician,  a  true  Dr.  Sangrado,  prescribed  copious  bleeding, 
the  most  mistaken  treatment  for  a  man  in  his  condition. 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  3,  the  new  sultan  held 
his  first  council.  His  ministers  were  Ruchdi,  Midhat, 
Ahmet  Kaiserli,  Hairullah,  and  Hussein  Avni.  It  soon 
appeared  that  their  views,  especially  in  the  great  matter 
of  public  instruction,  differed  essentially  from  those  of 
the  reforming  sultan.  Feverish,  excited,  and  discouraged, 
Murad  left  the  council,  and  the  next  day  he  received  news 
of  the  unhappy  fate  of  Abdul  Aziz. 

That  dethroned  prince  had  been  removed  to  the  ancient 
palace  of  Top  Kapou,  whence  he  addressed  a  letter  to 
Sultan  Murad  on  the  second  day  after  his  deposition  :  — 

"  Next  to  my  trust  in  God,  my  hope  is  in  your  Majesty.  I 
congratulate  you  on  your  accession,  and  I  regret  I  could  not 
serve  the  nation  as  it  desired  to  be  served.  •  I  trust  your  Majesty 
will  not  forget  that  I  laid  the  foundation  of  those  means  that 
will  preserve  the  empire  and  protect  its  honor.  I  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  soldiers  armed  by  my  own  hand  have 
placed  me  in  this  situation.  As  I  have  always  had  the  merit  of 
being  ready  to  help  those  who  were  in  distress,  I  implore  you  to 
let  me  be  removed  from  the  melancholy  and  narrow  residence 
in  which  I  find  myself,  and  to  assign  me  a  more  suitable  place 
of  abode.  I  congratulate  you  that  the  power  has  now  passed 
into  the  family  of  Abdul  Medjid." 

This  letter  was  in  the  ex-sultan's  own  handwriting.  It 
was  written  with  red  ink,  such  as  in  Turkey  is  only  used  by 
sultans.  In  a  postscript  he  begs  his  successor  to  send  him 


21  8     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

twenty  thousand  Turkish  pounds  which  he  had  left  behind 
him. 

Murad's  reply  was  likewise  an  autograph.  In  most  suit- 
able terms  it  tried  to  calm,  console,  and  reassure  his 
uncle,  and  he  gave  orders  at  once  that  he  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  that  wing  of  the  palace  of  Tcheragan  that  he  him- 
self had  formerly  inhabited.  But  Hussein  Avni  put  off  the 
removal  for  three  days,  under  various  pretexts,  really  be- 
cause he  wished  the  new  sultan  to  understand  thoroughly 
that  his  orders  must  be  subject  to  his  own  control. 

At  last,  when  the  seraskier  could  no  longer  refuse  obedi- 
ence to  the  reiterated  commands  of  his  master,  backed  by 
the  remonstrances  of  other  members  of  the  cabinet,  he 
ordered  Abdul  Aziz  and  his  family  to  be  transferred  from 
Top  Kapou  to  Tcheragan.  But  he  would  do  nothing  to 
discover  and  restore  the  twenty  thousand  pounds  that  the 
ex-sultan  had  left  behind  him. 

The  new  residence  of  Abdul  Aziz  was  guarded  by  three 
lines  of  soldiers,  and  he  was  desired  to  confine  himself  to 
his  own  rooms.  Without  paying  any  regard  to  these  orders, 
Abdul  Aziz  went  out  at  once  upon  the  terrace  that  over- 
looks the  Bosphorus,  and  proceeded  to  walk  up  and  down 
there.  The  sentry  on  duty  requested  him  to  go  indoors. 
"Rascal!  who  am  I?"  cried  the  ex-sultan.  "Abdul  Aziz 
Effendi,"  was  the  answer. 

This  curtailment  of  his  titles  highly  exasperated  the  de- 
throned sultan,  and  the  sentry,  uncertain  what  to  do,  went 
in  search  of  his  colonel.  That  officer,  approaching  the  ex- 
sultan,  remarked  that  he  had  better  avoid  the  night  air. 
This  interference  still  further  exasperated  Abdul  Aziz,  who, 
drawing  a  small  revolver  from  his  breast,  fired  at  the  colonel. 
The  officer  fortunately  was  bowing  at  that  moment,  and 
the  ball  passed  over  his  head.  He  drew  back,  and  brought 
up  a  party  of  soldiers.  Seeing  these  the  captive  monarch 
turned  away,  and  went  back  into  the  palace ;  but  not  being 
able  to  sleep,  he  came  forth  again  in  the  dark,  and  wan- 
dered unmolested  in  the  gardens  and  on  the  esplanade^ 
still  guarded  by  the  soldiers. 


FOUR  SULTANS.  21$ 

In  his  agitation  he  talked  aloud,  and  was  heard  saying, 
"  Have  I  no  one  to  defend  me  ?  Where  are  the  men  I  have 
loaded  with  favors  and  kindness?  Where  are  my  sons? 
To  one  I  gave  my  army,  to  the  other  my  navy.  Where 
are  your  regiments  ?  Where  are  your  ironclads  ?  Why  does 
not  that  noble  vessel  I  see  yonder  blow  up  my  enemies  with 
its  mighty  cannon?  " 

When  day  broke  his  frenzy  gave  way  to  utter  prostration. 
Sometimes  in  a  tone  of  command  he  gave  orders  to  his  fleet, 
or  broke  out  into  reproaches  addressed  to  Hussein  Avni. 
Sometimes  he  resumed  his  dignity,  called  for  his  ministers, 
and  questioned  them  as  if  they  had  been  present. 

Toward  evening  an  aide-de-camp  arrived  to  request  him 
to  give  up  his  revolver.  Abdul  Aziz  was  himself  at  that 
moment,  and  he  said,  with  irony:  "What  for?  Why  does 
my  dear  nephew  want  my  revolver?"  "He  is  afraid  your 
Majesty  might  wound  yourself."  "  Take  it,  then,  out  of  my 
bosom."  "  No  man  may  place  his  hand  upon  the  person 
of  your  Majesty.  Will  you  be  pleased  to  give  it  me 
yourself?  " 

Abdul  Aziz  drew  the  revolver  from  its  hiding-place,  and 
gave  it  to  the  aide-de-camp,  who,  saluting  most  respectfully, 
was  about  to  retire,  when  the  sultan  called  him  back  again. 
"  Fool !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  why  do  you  take  the  pistol,  and 
leave  hanging  on  the  wall  my  sword  and  dagger?  "  "  I  have 
no  orders  concerning  anything  but  the  pistol,"  replied  the 
messenger.  But  a  few  hours  after  the  household  of  the 
ex-sultan  removed  the  weapons. 

The  valide  and  some  other  women  of  the  harem  spent 
all  Saturday  with  Abdul  Aziz  endeavoring  to  calm  and  com- 
fort him.  They  succeeded  in  producing  some  effect,  but 
during  the  night,  in  which  he  could  not  sleep,  he  became 
greatly  agitated.  Once  he  broke  out  fiercely  against  the 
valide,  who  was  sitting  beside  him.  "It  is  you,"  he  cried, 
"you,  you  vile  creature,  who  are  the  cause  of  my  misfor- 
tunes." Was  he  alluding  to  his  mother's  intrigues,  or  to 
the  evil  education  she  had  given  him  ?  After  this  he  strode 


22O     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

wildly  up  and  down  the  hall,  with  many  windows  overlooking 
the  Bosphorus,  stopping  from  time  to  time  to  gaze  upon  its 
noble  waters,  and  growing  calmer  as  his  eyes  rested  on  the 
glorious  scene.  At  sunrise,  in  an  armchair,  he  fell  asleep. 
He  woke  about  eight  o'clock,  and  sent  for  his  reader,  whom 
he  ordered  to  read  to  him  the  Turkish  papers.  After  listen- 
ing to  these  for  half  an  hour,  he  turned  calmly  to  Faker  Bey, 
his  favorite  chamberlain,  and  ordered  him  to  bring  him  a 
small  looking-glass,  and  a  pair  of  scissors,  as  he  wished  to 
trim  his  beard. 

The  chamberlain  went  and  told  the  valide,  who  gave  him 
the  scissors.  They  were  a  small  pair  with  sharp  points  used 
for  embroidery.  "  Now  leave  me  by  myself,"  said  Abdul 
Aziz.  He  was  accustomed  to  shut  himself  up  alone  when 
dressing  or  trimming  his  hair. 

A  few  minutes  after  the  chamberlain  left  him,  some  of 
his  women  peeped  at  him  through  a  window  in  an  opposite 
wall,  and  saw  him  cutting  his  beard,  and  apparently  absorbed 
in  the  occupation. 

Sitting  on  a  chair  near  a  window  which  commands  one  of 
the  finest  sea  views  in  the  world,  Abdul  Aziz  with  his  right 
hand  must  have  severed  an  artery  in  his  left  arm,  and  then 
must  have  used  the  weakened  left  hand  to  serve  the  right 
arm  in  the  same  way.  It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  he  had 
ever  heard  of  Seneca,  but  he  imitated  the  great  suicide  un- 
consciously, dying  with  equal  courage  and  with  less  parade. 
Weakened  by  loss  of  blood,  he  slipped  from  his  chair  upon 
the  floor.  The  noise  of  his  fall  was  heard  by  some  of  his 
women.  They  gave  the  alarm  to  the  valide.  Already  a 
stream  of  blood  was  trickling  from  beneath  the  door  of  his 
apartment,  which  was  fastened  on  the  inside.  It  was  forced 
open,  and  Abdul  Aziz  was  found  still  alive.  He  was  able 
to  say  to  his  mother,  "  I  have  killed  myself,"  and  in  a  few 
moments  expired.  It  was  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
Two  physicians  were  already  in  the  house ;  they  hastened 
to  the  spot,  but  could  only  declare 'that  the  dethroned  prince 
was  dead.  Loud  wails  arose  from  his  bereaved  mother  and 


FOUR  SULTANS.  221 

his  women.  Hussein  Avni  hastened  to  the  palace.  He 
instantly  ordered  the  body  to  be  brought  down  to  the  lower 
floor.  There  it  was  laid,  all  bloody,  on  the  pavement.  His 
next  care  was  to  hold  an  informal  inquest,  —  to  examine  the 
valide,  and  to  take  other  testimony.  He  also  gave  orders 
to  call  in  at  once  the  seventeen  chief  physicians  of  Con- 
stantinople, including  those  attached  to  the  British  and 
Austrian  embassies.  All  came  immediately,  and  by  eleven 
o'clock  had  drawn  up  a  paper  which  they  all  signed.  It 
contained  these  paragraphs  :  — 

I.  The  death  of  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  is  due  to  loss  of  blood 
caused  by  severance  of  veins  in  the  left  arm. 

II.  The  instrument  shown  us  is  capable  of  having  pro- 
duced these  wounds. 

III.  The  direction  of  the  wounds  and  the  nature  of  the 
instrument  convince  us  that  it  was  a  suicide. 

At  the  word  "  suicide  "  all  Europe  smiled  incredulously. 
The  medical  journals  of  London  and  Paris  expressed  grave 
doubts  upon  the  subject.  A  paper  in  the  "  Lancet " 
brought  out  Dr.  Dickson,  the  physician  to  the  English 
embassy  at  Constantinople,  who  had  the  reputation  of  be- 
ing a  good  physician  and  an  honest  man.  He  acknowl- 
edged that,  when  first  sent  for  to  assist  in  the  post  mortem, 
his  expectation  had  been  that  he  should  behold  the  victim 
of  a  murder.  "  It  was  not  until  we  had  thoroughly  exam- 
ined the  facts  brought  before  us,"  he  concludes,  "  that  I 
became  convinced  that  the  death  of  Abdul  Aziz  was  by  his 
own  hand,  as  is  stated  in  the  report  of  the  physicians." 

But  for  some  time  the  public  impression  in  Constan- 
tinople and  in  Pera  was  that  the  case  was  one  of  murder. 
It  was  said  that  early  in  the  morning  Hussein  Avni,  aided 
by  Redif  Pasha,  had  committed  the  crime,  and  that  they 
had  slain  two  victims,  —  the  ex-sultan  and  his  third  wife, 
the  sister  or  near  kinswoman  of  Hassan,  the  Circassian, 
who  had  lost  her  life  attempting  to  defend  her  husband 
and  sovereign.  This  romance  may  make  a  future  plot  for 
a  sensational  novel ;  but  in  sober  truth  the  Circassian  wife 


222     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

of  Abdul  Aziz  lay  dying  of  consumption;  and  her  end, 
which  was  indeed  hastened  by  her  grief,  did  not  take  place 
till  some  days  afterward. 

Murad  himself  believed  that  Hussein  Avni  was  his  uncle's 
murderer.  The  story  was  told  him  without  any  precautions, 
and  in  the  excited  state  of  his  nervous  system  it  had  the 
worst  effect  upon  him.  "  They  have  covered  me  with 
shame  !  "  he  cried.  "  I  promised  him  his  life  !  Those 
wretches  have  murdered  him  !  How  horrible  !  How 
horrible  !  " 

His  excitement  brought  on  an  attack  of  frenzy.  His 
medical  attendant  was  wholly  incompetent  to  deal  with  the 
case  judiciously.  It  virtually  brought  to  its  close  a  reign 
which,  though  it  lasted  three  months  and  one  day,  accord- 
ing to  history,  was  limited  to  six  days'  actual  sovereignty. 
When  Abdul  Aziz  raised  his  hand  against  his  life,  he  slew 
two  sultans.  His  madness  was  the  cause  of  his  nephew's 
loss  of  reason.  Abdul  Aziz  had  indeed  shown  previous 
signs  of  insanity.  In  1862  his  furious  conduct  had  so  much 
alarmed  Mehemet  AH  Pasha,  his  brother-in-law,  that  he  one 
day  sent  in  haste  for  Dr.  Mongeri,  director  of  the  insane 
hospital  at  Scutari,  who  prescribed  sedatives,  change  of  air, 
and  frequent  yachting. 

According  to  Mohammedan  law,  a  dead  body  must  be 
buried  before  sunset.  The  remains  of  Abdul  Aziz  were 
therefore  washed,  perfumed,  and  wrapped  in  a  shroud  im- 
mediately after  the  departure  of  the  physicians.  They  were 
then  placed  in  a  steamboat,  and  taken  to  the  Sanctuary  of 
the  Mantle  of  the  Prophet  at  Top  Kapou.  Here  the  fune- 
ral services  took  place  in  the  presence  of  almost  all  the 
ministers  and  certain  other  official  personages.  The  body 
was  then  borne  to  the  splendid  mausoleum  of  Sultan  Mah- 
rooud,  where  father  and  son  lie  side  by  side. 

Fully  persuaded  that  his  uncle  Abdul  Aziz  had  been 
murdered  by  the  war  minister  Hussein  Avni,  Sultan  Murad, 
during  the  fatal  Sunday,  June  4,  1876,  spoke  of  the  event 
again  and  again  with  horror.  Sometimes  he  grew  wild  with 


FOUR  SULTANS.  22$ 

indignation,  sometimes  he  wept,  sometimes  he  sat  in  melan- 
choly silence,  from  which  no  one  could  rouse  him.  None 
of  his  European  friends  were  suffered  to  approach  him  at 
this  crisis.  He  was  left  to  the  care  of  an  incompetent 
physician  and  an  ignorant,  weak-minded  valide. 

His  reign  was  now  over.  Hussein  Avni,  the  head  of 
the  conspiracy  that  had  placed  him  on  his  father's  throne, 
now  governed  in  his  stead.  The  official  organ  continued 
to  inform  the  public  each  day  that  his  Majesty  had  trans- 
acted business  with  his  ministers  or  his  grand  vizier ;  but 
he  was  no  longer  capable  of  attending  to  affairs.  He 
ceased  to  care  for  food ;  he  talked  wildly  to  himself. 
Sometimes  he  walked  restlessly  until  exhausted  ;  sometimes 
no  persuasion  could  arouse  him.  Yet  he  had  lucid  inter- 
vals, when  he  would  cry :  "  I  will  give  in  my  resignation  as 
sultan  !  Let  me  find  an  asylum  in  France  or  Italy.  Let  my 
successor  be  called  to  the  throne." 

Such  was  his  condition  for  ten  days.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  a  dreadful  tragedy  cut  short  the  career  of  the  powerful 
dictator,  Hussein  Avni. 

Hassan  Bey,  brother  or  cousin  of  the  fair  Circassian,  the 
best  beloved  wife  of  Abdul  Aziz,  belonged  to  the  indomi- 
table race  of  Caucasian  mountaineers,  whom  the  Russian 
government  expatriated,  sending  about  five  thousand  of 
them  over  the  frontier,  to  find  an  asylum  in  Turkey. 
Hassan's  father  had  been  Ismail  Bey,  a  noted  chief,  who  as 
head  of  a  small  colony  in  Roumelia  contrived  to  prosper 
in  spite  of  the  hardships  which  beset  his  fellow  exiles.  He 
was  sufficiently  well  off  to  send  his  son  Hassan  to  the  Military 
Academy,  which  he  quitted  with  the  grade  of  lieutenant. 
A  brilliant  future  seemed  in  store  for  this  young  man,  whose 
near  relative  already  occupied  an  important  position  in  the 
sultan's  harem,  being  mother  to  his  third  son,  Prince 
Mehemet  Selim  Effendi.  Hassan  rose  rapidly  in  his  pro- 
fession. In  a  few  months  he  was  made  a  captain,  and 
then  aide-de-camp  to  Prince  Yussef  Izzeddin.  His  ad- 
vancement was  due  to  influence ;  for  as  a  scholar  he  had 


224     RUSSIA  AND   TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

never  been  distinguished,  and  he  was  a  very  insubordinate 
and  indifferent  soldier.  Though  a  married  man,  his  life 
was  disorderly.  Every  night  he  might  be  seen  in  the  dis- 
reputable singing-gardens  of  Pera,  gambling  and  drinking 
in  low  company.  Indeed  his  reputation  was  so  bad  that 
suspicion  rested  on  him  as  the  probable  murderer  of  two 
disreputable  Armenian  women.  His  tall  figure  and  his 
martial  bearing  made  him  everywhere  conspicuous.  But 
his  high  cheek  bones  showed  the  Tartar  blood  in  his  veins, 
and  his  stern,  cruel  look,  rough  manners,  and  quarrelsome 
disposition  did  not  dispose  people  in  his  favor,  though  they 
treated  with  respect  the  sultan's  brother-in-law. 

After  the  coup  d'&tat  all  aides-de-camp  of  the  court  of 
Abdul  Aziz  were  ordered  to  report  themselves  in  garrison 
towns  in  Asia.  Bagdad  was  assigned  to  Hassan,  who,  how- 
ever, continued  to  linger  in  his  old  haunts,  openly  accusing 
the  seraskier  of  regicide. 

For  this  he  was  put  under  arrest.  The  next  day,  June 
n,  the  young  widow  of  Abdul  Aziz  died.  On  the  15111 
Hassan  declared  himself  humble  and  penitent,  and  promised 
to  set  out  the  next  day  for  Bagdad.  On  giving  this  promise 
he  was  set  at  liberty. 

That  evening  he  presented  himself  at  the  residence  of 
Hussein  Avni,  and  was  informed  that  his  Highness  had  gone 
to  dine  with  Midhat  Pasha,  at  whose  house  after  dinner  a 
cabinet  council  was  to  be  held.  He  next  crossed  the 
Golden  Horn  in  a  caique,  and  entered  a  restaurant,  where 
he  tossed  off  several  glasses  of  raki.  After  this  he  made 
his  way  to  the  house  of  Midhat  Pasha,  —  a  mansion  stand- 
ing in  a  garden  exposed  to  public  view.  On  the  ground - 
floor  was  a  large  vestibule,  on  which  opened  the  servants' 
rooms  and  offices ;  above  were  the  reception-rooms,  one 
looking  toward  the  sea,  the  other  toward  Constantinople. 
The  ministers  were  assembled  in  the  one  overlooking  the 
city,  where  a  chandelier  with  forty  lighted  candles  hung  over 
an  oval  table,  on  which  lay  handsomely  bound  French 
books.  The  furniture  consisted  of  sofas  placed  in  each  cor- 


POUR  SULTANS.  22$ 

ner  of  the  apartment,  and  large  armchairs  covered  with  red 
silk-damask  in  the  most  modern  style.  The  other  saloon 
(empty  at  the  moment)  was  larger.  It  had  blue  silk  fur- 
niture, and  doors  leading  into  the  harem.  It  was  lighted 
by  two  chandeliers,  whose  soft  light  fell  through  folding- 
doors  into  the  red  reception-room. 

The  ministers  present  were  :  Midhat ;  Ruchdi,  the  grand 
vizier :  Hussein  Avni,  minister  of  war ;  Ahmed  Kaiserli, 
minister  of  naval  affairs  \  Raschid  Pasha,  minister  of  foreign 
affairs  ;  four  other  members  of  the  cabinet,  and  an  ex-sheref 
of  Mecca.  Besides  these  there  were  two  other  high 
officials,  Mahmoud  Bey  and  Said,  who  was  secretary  to  the 
grand  vizier,  —  twelve  in  all.  They  had  begun  business 
about  ten  o'clock,  but  had  paused  for  half  an  hour  to  eat 
ices,  and  partake  of  other  refreshments.  The  council  was 
going  on  again  when  an  unbidden  guest  appeared  among 
them. 

At  half-past  ten  Hassan  Bey  had  presented  himself  in 
the  vestibule.  An  aide-de-camp  asked  him  what  he  wanted. 
"I  leave  for  Bagdad  to-morrow  morning,"  was  the  answer; 
"  and  want  to  make  an  important  communication  to  his 
Highness  the  sera  skier" 

He  was  invited  to  sit  down,  and  refresh  himself,  and 
await  the  rising  of  the  council.  He  preferred,  however,  to 
walk  up  and  down  the  hall,  where  some  of  the  aides-de- 
camp were  asleep,  and  some  engaged  in  card- playing.  By 
degrees  they  ceased  to  notice  him,  and  he  quietly  passed 
up  the  stairs ;  in  an  antechamber  at  the  head  of  the  stair- 
case he  found  the  grand  vizier's  servant,  and  two  footmen 
of  Midhat  Pasha.  Addressing  the  former  he  said  that  he  was 
anxious  to  speak  to  the  seraskier.  The  man  politely  offered 
to  go  below  and  send  up  a  servant  of  Hussein  Avni's. 

When  he  departed  Hassan  half  opened  the  door  of  the 
reception-room.  "  It  is  forbidden  !  "  cried  the  servants. 
But  Hassan  had  had  time  to  see  how  the  guests  were  dis- 
tributed. The  grand  vizier  was  on  a  sofa  near  a  window 
talking  to  the  seras&ier,  who  was  seated  at  his  ease  in  an 

15 


226     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

armchair.  Near  them  were  Ahmed,  Kaiserli,  Raschid,  and 
another.  Nearer  to  the  door  on  the  same  side  of  the  room 
was  Midhat,  with  the  secretary  and  Mahmoud  Bey,  leaning 
over  a  small  table  on  which  were  writing  materials.  The 
other  side  of  the  room  to  the  left  was  occupied  by  the 
other  ministers. 

In  a  few  moments,  without  heeding  the  prohibition  of  the 
servants  in  the  anteroom,  Hassan  a  second  time  opened 
the  door  and  entered,  wrapped  in  his  military  cloak,  with 
his  martial  stride.  He  made  his  salutation  in  a  grave, 
respectful  manner.  Then  drawing  a  revolver  from  his 
sleeve,  he  cried,  "  Seraskier,  do  not  stir  ! "  and  pointed  his 
pistol  at  Hussein  Avni.  The  weapon  went  off.  What  next 
passed  it  is  difficult  to  describe,  all  present  having  been  too 
excited  to  recall  particulars.  Almost  all  rushed  in  a  body 
to  the  blue  reception-room,  but  Kaiserli  sprang  to  his  feet, 
and  seized  the  murderer.  Hassan,  however,  freed  himself, 
and  struck  him  with  a  dagger  in  the  face.  Meantime 
Hussein  Avni,  who  had  been  shot  in  the  breast,  had  just 
strength  to  reach  the  door.  Hassan  ran  after  him  and 
plunged  the  poniard  into  his  stomach,  making  repeated 
wounds.  There  remained  in  the  red  room  only  one  minis- 
ter,—  the  minister  for  foreign  affairs,  Raschid  Pasha,  who 
had  fainted  in  his  chair.  Hassan,  disregarding  him,  rushed 
to  the  door  of  the  blue  room,  crying,  "  Kaiserli !  Kaiserli !  " 
Then  he  fired  into  the  folding-doors.  He  evidently  no 
longer  knew  what  he  was  doing.  Seizing  an  armchair  he 
flung  it  against  the  chandelier,  and  with  a  lighted  candle 
that  dropped  upon  the  floor  he  tried  to  set  fire  to  the  cur- 
tains. At  this  moment  a  brave  young  Anatolian  page  of 
Midhat's,  a  lad  of  singular  beauty,  rushed  into  the  rocm. 
He  at  once  threw  his  dagger  at  the  head  of  the  murderer, 
wounded  him  slightly  and  tried  to  pinion  his  arms.  But 
Hassan,  shaking  himself  free,  stretched  him  dead  at  his 
feet.  He  then  turned  on  Raschid  Pasha,  and  fired  through 
his  skull;  he  died  without  having  recovered  from  his 
fainting-fit. 


FOUR  SULTANS. 


227 


Nearly  half  an  hour  had  thus  passed,  and  one  man 
remained  master  of  the  battle-field  in  a  house  crowded  with 
others. 

The  ministers,  supposing  that  they  were  attacked  by  a 
band  of  brigands,  intrenched  themselves  in  the  blue 
reception-room,  waiting  for  succor,  which  a  servant  was 
sent  through  the  garden  to  obtain.  But  that  no  servant 
but  the  brave  young  page  should  have  come  to  their  assist- 
ance seems  very  singular.  It  could  not  have  been  from 
cowardice,  for  no  people  are  braver  than  the  Turks.  They 
probably  believed  that  the  blow  was  struck  by  order  of  the 
government,  and  dared  not  interfere  with  an  accredited 
official. 

Fortunately,  near  Midhat's  house  was  a  post  of  zaptiehs, 
military  police.  They  reached  the  scene  of  blood,  some- 
what leisurely,  about  midnight,  and  their  officers  —  a  major 
and  a  lieutenant — summoned  Hassan  to  surrender.  He 
half  opened  the  door  and  fired  twice,  wounding  both  of 
them.  Their  men,  being  then  reinforced  by  a  picket  of 
soldiers  from  the  war-office,  broke  in  the  door,  and,  notwith- 
standing a  fierce  resistance,  overpowered  Hassan.  In  the 
struggle  an  aide-de-camp  of  the  grand  vizier  lost  his  life. 

Mohammedan  justice  is  speedy.  Hardly  six  hours  elapsed 
between  the  murderer's  fourfold  crime  and  his  execution. 
After  a  brief  examination,  in  which  he  said  that  he  was 
sorry  for  Raschid's  death,  and  for  that  of  the  brave  young 
Anatolian,  he  was  hung  up  to  a  tree  in  an  open  space  before 
the  scraskiat,  his  face  bare,  but  his  body  wrapped  in  a  kind 
of  white  shroud,  with  a  writing  on  his  breast  describing  his 
crime  and  its  punishment.  He  remained  hanging  until 
sunset. 

His  victims  were  buried  the  same  day.  No  one  regretted 
Hussein  Avni ;  and  yet  at  that  crisis  the  life  of  a  general  so 
energetic  and  so  stern  might  have  been  of  great  service  to 
the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Raschid  was  a  man  of  a  very  different  spirit,  —  timid, 
prudent,  and  reserved.  He  had  been  educated  in  France, 


228    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

and  spoke  French  like  a  Frenchman.  He  seemed  made 
for  an  ambassador.  He  was,  besides,  strictly  honest.  He 
was  in  his  forty-seventh  year.  Hassan,  his  murderer,  was 
twenty-five. 

For  more  than  two  months  afterward  the  country  was 
governed  by  a  triumvirate,  —  Midhat,  the  grand  vizier,  and 
Hai'rullah,  the  shcik-ul-Islam.  These  continued  to  de- 
ceive the  public  as  to  the  true  condition  of  Sultan  Murad. 
It  was  given  out  that  he  had  had  a  sharp  attack  of  illness, 
that  he  suffered  from  fever  and  from  several  boils.  Every 
Friday  he  went  to  public  prayers  in  the  mosque,  but  he 
proceeded  thither  in  a  caique  or  a  close  carriage.  "It  is 
because  of  his  boil  that  he  always  hides  his  face,"  said 
some ;  but  others  answered,  "  There  is  something  worse 
than  a  boil."  At  that  time  the  whole  Turkish  Empire  was 
in  commotion,  and  needed  a  strong  hand  to  control  both 
its  arms  and  its  diplomacy.  The  wholesale  massacre  of 
Christians  in  southern  Bulgaria  had  roused  the  indignation 
of  all  Europe.  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  in  open 
insurrection;  Servia  and  Montenegro,  assisted  by  Russian 
officers,  were  at  open  war  with  the  Porte ;  and  the  Russians 
were  massing  troops  on  the  frontier  of  Roumania.  General 
IgnatierT  threatened  to  withdraw  the  Russian  embassy  from 
Constantinople  until  a  sane  sovereign  should  occupy  the 
throne.  Abdul  Hamid,  Murad's  next  brother  and  presump- 
tive heir,  was  asked  if  he  would  undertake  the  regency. 
He  replied  that  a  regency  was  not  recognized  by  the  law 
of  the  Prophet,  but  that  he  would  accept  the  throne  if  quite 
convinced  that  his  brother  was  incurably  insane.  After  this 
Dr.  Liedersdorf  was  sent  for  from  Vienna.  He  was  the 
director  of  an  insane  hospital  in  that  city,  and  had  been 
already  summoned  to  attend  other  crowned  heads.  He 
wholly  disapproved  the  lowering  treatment  of  Dr.  Capoleone, 
recommended  salt  bathing  and  yachting,  and  far  from  con- 
sidering the  case  hopeless  is  reported  to  have  said  in 
private :  "  If  I  had  Sultan  Murad  under  my  own  care  in 
Vienna  I  would  have  him  all  right  in  six  weeks." 


POUR  SULTANS.  22Q 

This  opinion  was  not  what  had  been  looked  for,  nor  was 
it  satisfactory.  Indeed  after  improving  under  the  new 
treatment  Murad  suffered  a  relapse,  his  nervous  system 
being  shaken  by  the  thunders  of  a  salute  from  the  great 
guns  of  his  own  iron-clads  as  he  was  passing  them  in  a 
caique  on  his  way  to  the  mosque.  But  he  could  not  be  set 
aside  without  the  approbation  of  the  sheik-ul-Islam,  who 
after  a  little  hesitation  issued  the  folio  wing  fetva\  — 

Question.  If  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful  be  attacked  by 
mental  insanity,  and  if  the  objects  for  which  he  holds  his  func- 
tions cannot  be  attained  in  consequence,  may  he  be  deposed  ? 

Answer.    Yes. 

Written  by  the  humble  Hassan  Hai'rullah,  on  whom  may 
God  send  peace. 

On  Thursday,  therefore,  Sept.  i,  1876,  Murad  V.  was 
formally  deposed  ;  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  II.  was  proclaimed, 
and  the  next  day  he  was  girt  with  the  sword  of  Othman  in 
the  mosque  of  Eyoub. 

Murad  was  unconscious  at  the  time.  His  mother,  unlike 
the  savage  Kurdish  mother  of  Abdul  Aziz,  submitted  to  the 
change  with  a  good  grace.  She  was  complimented  by  a 
promise  that  she  should  suffer  no  loss  of  dignity,  but  that 
she  should  be  the  adopted  valide  of  the  new  sultan.  Dr. 
Capoleone,  in  whom  she  had  great  confidence,  assured  her 
that  her  son's  malady  was  incurable,  and  that  his  days  were 
numbered. 

Abdul  Hamid  had  had  ill-health  in  his  youth,  and  had 
received  little  instruction.  From  a  young  Belgian  seam- 
stress, Flora  Cordier,  whom  he  converted  to  Mohammedan- 
ism, and  placed  in  his  harem,  he  had  acquired  some  slight 
acquaintance  with  French,  but  he  showed  little  of  Murad's 
eager  love  for  knowledge.  Before  his  accession  he  did  not 
care  for  much  intercourse  with  foreigners,  nor  did  he  ever 
give  ear  to  Young  Turkey's  liberal  ideas.  He  was  very  fond 
of  agriculture,  and  during  the  reign  of  Abdul  Aziz  had 
amused  himself  by  cultivating  a  model  farm.  The  softas 


230     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

and  ulemas  flocked  around  him.  He  was  well  versed  in 
the  Koran,  and  loved  disputations  in  theology.  To  his 
mother,  an  Armenian  from  Georgia,  he  owes  a  quality  very 
rare  in  the  family  of  Othman,  —  the  spirit  of  economy.  He 
never  exceeded  his  income  before  he  came  to  the  throne, 
and  even  laid  by  money. 

At  first  he  was  disposed  to  treat  his  brother  Murad  with 
great  consideration.  "If  his  reign  had  only  lasted  a  few 
years,"  he  said  in  his  speech  after  his  inauguration,  "  I 
should  have  had  the  example  of  his  virtues  to  walk  by." 
But  it  soon  appeared  that  the  existence  of  a  dethroned 
sovereign,  —  a  state  of  things  unparalleled  in  Turkish  his- 
tory, —  gave  his  successor  an  uneasy  throne. 

Murad  was  rigidly  secluded,  and  has  been  so  up  to  the 
present  time.  No  European  friend  was  allowed  to  visit 
him ;  even  his  kinsfolk  were  denied  access  to  him ;  and  it 
was  soon  understood  in  his  household  that  to  acknowledge 
he  was  better  was  looked  upon  as  a  sort  of  treason  to  the 
brother  who  occupied  the  throne. 

The  valide  soon  associated  with  Dr.  Capoleone  a  dervish, 
whose  charms  and  verses  from  the  Koran  were  probably  a 
great  improvement  upon  the  Italian's  leeches  and  hot  water. 
But  Murad  in  his  first  lucid  interval  refused  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  either  of  them,  and  from  that  time  con- 
tinued to  improve.  It  was  hard,  however,  to  emancipate 
himself  from  the  valide1  s  fancies.  She  continued  to  fumi- 
gate his  rooms,  and  to  go  through  various  barbarous  and 
disgusting  ceremonies  to  drive  out,  as  she  asserted,  the 
demons  and  afrites. 

His  health  might  possibly  have  been  restored  by  a  jour- 
ney to  western  Europe,  but  it  is  a  great  affair  of  state  for 
any  member  of  the  house  of  Othman  to  quit  the  soil  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  —  the  law  of  the  Prophet  forbids  it ;  and 
when  in  1867  Abdul  Aziz  went  to  the  Paris  Exposition  he 
was  obliged  to  compromise  by  having  the  soles  of  his  shoes 
daily  powdered  with  dust  from  his  own  dominions. 

About  a  twelvemonth  after  Murad's  deposition  a  French- 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAMID  II. 


FOUR  SULTANS.  2$  I 

man  succeeded  in  passing  three  days  with  him  in  the  palace 
of  Tcheragan,  before  he  was  removed  to  the  old  seraglio  of 
Top  Kapou.  He  found  the  ex-sultan  to  all  appearance  in 
good  health,  and  exhibiting,  so  far  as  he  could  see,  no  sign 
of  mental  derangement ;  but  his  beard  and  hair,  which  were 
coal  black  on  his  accession,  had  become  white  as  snow. 
Seeing  his  visitor's  astonishment,  Murad  remarked  :  "  I  sup- 
pose you  think  that  my  hair  has  grown  suddenly  white  from 
grief,  like  Marie  Antoinette's,  or  that  it  has  been  blanched 
by  the  severity  of  my  captivity.  Not  so.  Some  months 
before  my  uncle's  death  I  found  myself  getting  a  little  gray. 
I  was  rather  pleased  with  my  white  hairs,  but  my  mother 
objected  to  them.  Not  long  before  my  elevation  to  the 
throne  she  purchased  in  Pera  some  marvellous  hair-dye, 
with  which  she  rubbed  my  head  several  times.  The  gray 
hairs  disappeared,  but  shortly  after  I  became  subject  to 
intense  headaches,  which  Capoleone  attributed  to  another 
cause,  but  Dr.  Liedersdorf  said  they  came  from  nitrate  of 
silver,  and  such  ingredients  in  the  hair-dye.  Since  I  have 
given  it  up  my  hair  has  grown  snow-white,  but  the  head- 
aches have  disappeared." 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  —  GENERAL  SKOBELEFF. 

TN  order  to  understand  the  attitude  of  western  Europe 
^  in  reference  to  the  Eastern  Question,  we  must  keep  in 
mind  the  system  of  European  police  which  maintains  what 
is  called  the  balance  of  power.  The  United  States  are 
happily  preserved  thus  far,  by  their  traditional  policy,  from 
taking  any  part  in  this  matter,  but  more  or  less  it  concerns 
not  only  the  continent  of  Europe,  but  the  whole  Eastern 
Hemisphere. 

By  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in  1 8 1 5  it  was  laid  down  as 
a  law  of  Europe  that  there  were  five  Great  Powers,  namely : 
England,  France,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria.  Of  these, 
Prussia  was  then  the  most  feeble.  There  were  seven  second- 
rate  powers,  namely  :  Spain,  Portugal,  Naples,  Turkey,  Hol- 
land, Sweden,  and  Denmark.  Besides  these  there  were 
third-rate  States  more  or  less  dependent  on  the  five  Great 
Powers. 

It  was  agreed  that  no  one  of  the  five  Great  Powers  was 
to  aggrandize  itself  (except  as  regarded  colonies)  without 
giving  the  other  four  a  right  to  take  something  to  their  own 
advantage,  that  would  keep  even  the  balance  of  power. 

If  any  two  Great  Powers  went  to  war  the  other  three 
had  liberty  to  negotiate,  or  if  need  were,  to  intervene  by 
force  of  arms,  provided  there  was  a  chance  that  the  balance 
of  power  would  be  disturbed. 

Each  Great  Power  had  certain  minor  Powers  under  its 
protection.  England,  for  instance,  had  Portugal ;  Austria 
had  the  Italian  princes ;  Prussia,  the  northern  States  of 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OP  1877.  233 

Germany.  It  was  much  like  the  system  in  an  English 
public  school,  where  a  boy  in  the  sixth  form  has  one  or 
more  little  boys  under  his  protection. 

But  there  was  one  country  that  refused  to  come  under 
such  protection,  or  to  accept  the  obligations  protection 
would  have  laid  upon  it.  That  country  was  Turkey.  More 
than  half  the  population  of  Turkey  in  Europe  was  Christian. 
Russia  claimed  a  right  to  protect  Greek  Christians,  and 
England  claimed  the  right  to  uphold  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment. From  1821  to  the  present  day  this  question  has 
been  the  most  troublesome  one  in  European  international 
politics.  It  has  given  rise  to  three  great  wars  :  that  of  1828, 
terminated  by  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople  ;  the  Crimean  War 
in  1855  and  1856,  terminated  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris;  and 
the  war  of  1877  and  1878,  when  the  police  policy  of  Europe 
was  put  upon  a  new  footing  by  Beaconsfield  and  Bismarck 
at  the  Congress  of  Berlin. 

After  the  Crimean  War,  Turkey,  in  acknowledgment  of 
French  and  English  help,  had  to  make  great  concessions. 
Her  two  Danubian  provinces,  Moldavia  and  Wallachia 
(wedged  in  between  Russia  and  Hungary),  were  made 
autonomous ;  that  is,  they  had  a  prince  of  their  own  and 
were  only  nominally  a  part  of  Turkey. 

South  of  the  Danube  were  two  provinces,  Servia  and 
Bulgaria,  with  the  river  for  their  northern  boundary.  Servia 
secured  autonomy  under  her  own  prince,  but  Turkey  kept 
a  garrison  in  the  strong  fortress  of  Belgrade,  and  received 
tribute. 

To  the  west  of  part  of  Bulgaria,  and  south  of  Servia,  were 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  with  the  little  Black  Moun- 
tain principality  (Montenegro)  lying  between  Bosnia  and 
Albania. 

The  chain  of  mountains  called  the  Balkans  ran  through 
what  in  1876  was  called  Bulgaria.  It  now  separates  the 
Bulgarian  principality  from  southern  Bulgaria,  better  known 
under  its  new  name  of  Eastern  Roumelia. 

The  dance  of  death  in  1875  was  ^  off  by  Herzegovina. 


234      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

It  began  by  local  quarrels  between  peasants  and  a  Turkish 
tax-collector.  Besides  a  tithe  tribute  on  everything  pro- 
duced by  agriculture,  the  Christian  peasant  had  to  pay 
poll-tax,  land-tax,  and  a  heavy  tax  upon  his  earnings,  be- 
sides being  subject  to  a  strict  corvte  of  forced  labor  on  the 
public  roads.  Laws  for  the  protection  of  the  Christian 
population  in  Turkey  have  been  repeatedly  made  and  pro- 
mulgated. After  the  Crimean  War  England  and  the  French 
emperor  insisted  that  a  hatt,  or  royal  ordinance,  should  be 
issued  giving  equal  civil  rights  to  Christians  and  to  Mussul- 
mans j  but  though  such  reforms  were  conceded  to  diplomacy, 
they  remained  entirely  unenforced.  Indeed,  who  can  regu- 
late the  local  oppressions  of  the  landlord  and  the  tax- 
gatherer? 

The  result  of  these  oppressions,  and  of  the  scorn  and 
contempt  with  which  Christians  were  treated  by  Moham- 
medans, was  that  in  1875  a  general  insurrection  broke  out 
in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  when  the  leaders  of  the  rising 
put  forth  a  pathetic  appeal  to  the  Great  Powers  to  come  to 
their  help  in  one  of  four  ways :  either  to  give  them  leave 
to  fight  their  quarrel  out  with  their  oppressors ;  or  to  assign 
them  some  land  to  which  they  might  all  emigrate ;  or  to 
form  an  autonomous  State  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  to 
be  ruled  by  some  foreign  prince  under  the  suzerainty  of  the 
sultan ;  or  lastly,  to  send  foreign  troops  into  their  villages 
till  the  homes,  honor,  property,  and  religious  liberty  of 
Christians  should  be  secured  to  them. 

I  have  not  space  to  describe  minutely  all  the  oppressions 
from  which  eight  millions  of  Christians  in  Turkey  in  Europe 
suffered.  These  oppressions  in  Bulgaria  by  no  means  anni- 
hilated the  prosperity  of  a  very  thriving  population  of 
Christians,  but  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  their  case  was 
harder.  The  best  way,  perhaps,  of  giving  some  idea  of  the 
state  of  things  will  be  to  tell  an  anecdote  taken  from  the 
note-book  of  a  newspaper  correspondent  in  1875,  anc^  to 
give  a  copy  of  the  usual  official  certificate  issued  to  permit 
the  burial  of  a  Christian. 


THE    TURKISH   WAR  OF  1877. 

"  I  had,"  says  the  correspondent,  "a  zaptieh,  or  Turkish  rural 
policeman,  who  accompanied  me  in  many  of  my  wanderings. 
The  man  was  kind-hearted  and  gentle,  and  I  saw  many  a  kind 
act  of  his  when  he  was  with  me,  but  it  never  occurred  to  him 
that  it  was  wrong  for  a  Turk  to  appropriate  the  property  of  a 
Bulgarian.  One  hot  day,  after  a  dusty  ride  we  found  ourselves 
on  the  top  of  a  hill  on  the  sides  of  which  were  vineyards  full  of 
fruit.  Presently,  as  I  sat  on  the  ground,  I  found  my  zaptieh 
and  the  horses  had  disappeared.  In  vain  I  called  ;  there  was 
no  response  for  some  minutes,  then  he  returned  and  beckoned 
me  to  follow  him.  To  my  amazement  he  had  turned  the  horses 
loose  to  eat  up  the  little  vines,  and  had  picked  thirty  or  forty 
great  bunches  of  grapes,  which  he  was  carefully  stowing  away 
in  his  saddle-bags,  having  reserved  the  best  for  me,  and  was 
preparing  to  ascend  a  peach  tree,  and  to  strip  that  also.  When 
in  imperfect  Turkish  I  refused  to  participate  in  his  act  of 
robbery,  I  shall  never  forget  the  look  of  amazement  with  which 
he  held  up  the  grapes  I  had  refused,  gazed  at  them  for  a 
moment,  then  putting  them  into  his  saddle-bags  mounted  in 
solemn  silence,  and  rode  down  the  hill.  It  was  an  hour  before 
he  spoke,  and  then  it  was  to  express  a  fear  that  the  heat  of  the 
sun  had  affected  my  head.  *  For,'  said  he,  '  if  the  Chelleby 
Effendi  would  hire  a  cart  we  might  go  to  that  vineyard  to- 
morrow, and  take  away  as  many  grapes  as  we  could  sell  for  ten 
dollars  ! '  Now  this  man  was  one  of  the  best  of  his  class,  as 
gentle  as  he  was  brave ;  but  his  education  had  taught  him  that 
what  belonged  to  a  Christian  was  his  as  a  Moslem,  and  this 
idea  had  all  his  life  been  built  up  in  him  by  what  he  saw 
around  him." 

"  Had  the  Bulgarian  proprietor,"  adds  the  reviewer  who 
relates  this  story,  "  resisted  this  spoiling  of  his  goods,  this 
kind  and  gentle  policeman  would  probably  have  slain  him 
without  compunction,  and  would  have  considered  any  man 
a  fool  or  a  madman  who  had  suggested  that  he  had  com- 
mitted a  crime." 

Here  is  the  form  of  burial  certificate  which  was  given 
under  Turkish  rule  when  a  Christian  required  interment :  — 

"  We  certify  to  the  priest  of  the  Church  of  Mary  that  the 
impure,  putrid,  stinking  carcass  of  Sardeh,  damned  this  day, 
may  be  concealed  underground." 


236     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

Bosnia  is  a  country  divided  from  Servia  by  the  river  Drina, 
and  from  Herzegovina  by  a  mountain  chain.  The  population 
of  both  countries  is  Slavonic,  like  that  of  Servia.  Turkish 
Croatia  and  Herzegovina  would  have  bordered  on  the 
Adriatic  but  for  the  decision  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in 
1815,  which  gave  Austria  a  narrow  strip  of  territory  running 
along  the  coast,  and  the  beautiful  Bay  of  Cattaro,  which 
with  her  possession  of  Venice  at  that  period  gave  her 
command  of  the  northern  part  of  the  Adriatic  Sea. 

By  1876  the  revolt  begun  in  Herzegovina  was  exciting 
the  hopes  and  sympathy  of  the  Christians  in  Bulgaria.  At 
the  close  of  that  year  a  hideous  massacre  of  the  Christian 
population  took  place  south  of  the  Balkans.  The  indigna- 
tion of  Europeans  and  Americans  was  roused  to  the  highest 
pitch,  and  Russia  prepared  to  invade  Turkey  on  behalf  of 
the  Christian  population. 

When  Russia  had  finally  subdued  Circassia,  the  Circas- 
sians, who  were  Moslems  and  unwilling  to  submit  to  a 
Christian  yoke,  were  by  the  advice  of  England  invited  to 
take  refuge  in  Turkey.  The  sultan  colonized  them  in  his 
own  dominions,  especially  in  southern  Bulgaria,  making 
them  form  small  settlements  or  village  communities.  These 
people  were  cordially  hated  by  the  Christian  peasantry ; 
endless  quarrels  went  on  between  them.  The  Circassians 
robbed;  the  Bulgarians  retaliated.  Among  all  the  Chris- 
tian populations  of  the  Porte  there  were  none  at  that  time 
so  industrious,  ingenious,  artistic,  and  progressive  as  the 
Bulgarians.  In  spite  of  oppression,  these  qualities  made 
them  prosper.  Carpets,  embroidery  in  gold  thread,  silver 
filigree  work,  and  repousse  work  were  their  chief  industries. 
Politically  and  socially  they  made  progress  under  great 
disadvantages,  and  they  paid  some  attention  to  education. 

When  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  revolted,  and  Servia 
went  to  war  with  Turkey,  it  was  determined  by  the  Porte 
to  take  away  all  arms  from  the  Christians  in  Bulgaria, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  arm,  at  the  sultan's  expense,  all 
the  Circassians  and  other  Moslems  in  the  province,  besides 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OP  1877.  237 

bringing  into  it  a  large  force  of  Kurds,  Bashi-Bazouks,  and 
Asiatic  barbarians. 

Before  long  Salonika  (the  Thessalonica  to  which  Saint 
Paul  wrote  two  Epistles),  a  noble  port  on  the  ^Egean  Sea, 
was  the  scene  of  a  massacre  which  included  two  European 
consuls.  This  brought  down  an  English  fleet  to  threaten 
the  place,  and  to  demand  reparation.  But  the  Turkish  gov- 
ernment was  very  soon  satisfied  that,  whatever  might  take 
place,  the  cause  of  the  Porte  would  not  be  deserted  by 
England.  At  once  thousands  of  Bashi-Bazouks  and  savage 
Circassians  were  let  loose  on  the  unhappy  Christian  popu- 
lation of  southern  Bulgaria.  More  than  one  hundred  towns 
or  villages  in  this  part  of  Turkey  were  destroyed ;  men, 
women,  and  children  were  slaughtered,  —  not  only  slaugh- 
tered, but  in  many  cases  tortured.  It  was  the  massacre  of 
Scio,  that  had  taken  place  fifty  years  before,  over  again. 
In  one  instance  a  large  school  of  children  were  killed  at 
once,  and  the  bodies  of  the  victims,  together  with  the 
schoolhouse,  were  burned  by  the  destroyers.  About  forty 
thousand  Bulgarians  were  thus  massacred  in  the  month  of 
June,  1876.  Children  made  captives  were  sold  in  the  large 
cities.  Who  can  wonder  at  the  passionate  excitement  that 
pervaded  Russia  on  receipt  of  this  intelligence  ? 

Alexander  II.  was  in  the  main  a  man  of  peace,  but  he 
took  arms  to  insist  on  the  fulfilment  by  the  Porte  of  the 
Hatt-i-Heymin  granted  after  the  Crimean  War,  which  gave 
protection  and  civil  rights  to  Christians.  This  haft,  as  I 
have  already  said,  had  remained  a  dead  letter,  and  possibly, 
as  its  provisions  were  in  opposition  to  all  Mussulman  feeling, 
it  was  out  of  the  power  of  the  sultan  and  his  government 
to  enforce  them. 

Everywhere  Russia  was  hailed  by  the  Christians  of  Bul- 
garia as  their  deliverer.  Their  belief  was  that  Russia,  and 
she  alone  among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  could  feel  for 
them  and  would  help  them. 

The  war  the  year  before,  when  Servia  attacked  the  Turks, 
had  brought  many  Russian  officers  across  the  Danube  as 


238     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

volunteers.  There  were  many  also  in  Roumania,  which 
although  nominally  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Porte, 
considered  itself  under  the  protection  of  Russia. 

The  Russian  armies  marched  therefore  through  Roumania, 
and  concentrated  at  Gourgievo,  a  Roumanian  town  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Danube.  Before  them  lay  the  river,  two  miles 
wide,  its  course  broken  by  a  muddy  islet  near  the  Turkish 
shore.  On  this  shore  lay  a  Turkish  army  with  strong  re- 
doubts, and  below  these,  also  on  the  Turkish  side,  was  the 
town  of  Rustchuk.  There  was  also  a  strong  Turkish  fleet 
in  the  river. 

A  story  to  be  interesting  should  always  have  a  hero,  and 
the  hero  of  this  Turkish  war  was  General  Skobeleff.  By 
following  his  history  we  shall  obtain  all  the  principal  points 
of  the  war,  which  was  a  brief  one,  its  actual  operations  only 
lasting  from  June,  1877,  to  February,  1878. 

Mikhail  Dimitrivitch  Skobeleff — the  "white  general," 
as  all  called  him,  —  the  "  intelligible  general,"  as  some  of 
his  soldiers  named  him,  was,  when  the  war  opened,  about 
thirty-three  years  old. 

As  so  much  Russian  literature  is  read  at  the  present  time, 
it  is  probably  superfluous  to  explain  the  Russian  system  of 
nomenclature.  A  Russian  has  but  one  baptismal  name,  but 
as  a  middle  name  he  always  takes  his  father's  baptismal 
name  with  vitch  added  to  it.  A  woman  does  the  same 
thing,  but  adds  ovna.  Servants  in  Russia,  instead  of  ad- 
dressing their  mistress  as  Ma'am  or  Madame,  or  even  by 
her  married  name,  would  say :  "  Here  is  a  letter  for  you, 
Elisaveta  Ivanovna,"  or  to  their  master,  "  Some  one  would 
like  to  see  you,  Alexander  Vassilivitch."  It  is  in  Russia  as 
it  was  in  Greece  in  the  Homeric  days,  when  it  was  not 
courteous  to  address  a  chief  without  adding  his  father's 
name  to  his  own.  Agamemnon,  in  a  crisis,  warns  Menelaus 
to  give  no  offence  by  neglecting  this  piece  of  propriety. 

Skobeleffs  father  was  therefore  Dimitri  Nicolaivitch 
Skobeleff,  and  the  son  became  Mikhail  Dimitrivitch.  His 
great-grandfather  was  said  to  have  been  a  Scottish  immi- 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  239 

grant  named  Scobie  ;  but  he  himself  cared  to  go  no  farthei 
back  than  his  grandfather,  a  peasant,  who  went  into  the 
Russian  army  and  rose  to  be  a  general. 

Skobeleff's  father  was  a  gruff  old  gentleman,  with  a  harsh 
voice.  Many  esteemed  him  miserly,  but  he  was  a  brave 
and  distinguished  officer,  and  devotedly  fond  of  his  son, 
who  delighted  in  playing  boyish  tricks  on  him.  Both  father 
and  son  were  tall  and  very  handsome.  Mikhail  Dimitrivitch 
indeed  was  six  feet  two.  The  old  general  placed  his  boy, 
who  was  too  young  to  enter  the  army  during  the  Crimean 
War,  in  the  hands  of  a  German  tutor,  who,  if  he  implanted 
nothing  else,  inspired  his  pupil  with  a  hatred  for  Germany. 
"  He  was  an  unjust,  mean,  rough  fellow,"  said  Skobeleff  to 
a  friend  in  after  years.  "  I  hated  him  as  much  as  one 
human  being  can  hate  another.  Once  he  struck  me, 
—  a  boy  of  thirteen,  —  in  the  presence  of  a  girl  whom  I 
admired  immensely,  struck  me  without  the  slightest  provo- 
cation on  my  part.  ...  I  forgot  what  I  was  doing.  I 
sprang  upon  him,  seized  him,  and  remained  petrified.  Do 
you  know  what  that  fellow  tried  to  teach  me  ?  He  taught 
that  Germany  was  everything  to  Russia ;  that  everything  in 
Russia  had  been  done  by  Germans,  and  that  Russia  must 
either  obey  Germany  or  perish.  There  was  no  universe, 
there  was  nothing  but  Germany.  And  I  hated  those  things 
in  my  heart.  My  father  dismissed  the  German,  and  I  was 
sent  to  Paris,  to  a  tutor  named  Girarde.  What  a  contrast ! 
I  love  Girarde  —  love  him  more  than  my  own  relations  ! 
He  taught  me  to  love  my  country.  He  showed  me  that 
there  is  nothing  on  earth  higher  than  one's  country,  and 
said  that  every  citizen  should  carry  his  country's  name  with 
pride.  After  having  experienced  a  course  of  hard  words, 
abuse,  and  blows,  I  now  met  with  gentleness,  attention, 
delicacy.  I  am  deeply  grateful  to  that  man.  He  made 
me  study,  and  instilled  into  me  a  love  of  science  and  of 
knowledge."1 

1  Much   of  this  account   of  General  Skobeleff  is  taken  from   a 
charming    book    by    Alexander    Verestchagin,   "At    Home   and  in 


240     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

And  this  love  of  science  and  of  knowledge  was  with  Skobe- 
leff  to  his  dying  day.  He  always  said  that  men  must  grow 
in  knowledge  till  they  die.  Not  only  was  he  always  increas- 
ing his  own  vast  stores,  but  he  was  constantly  trying  to 
stimulate  others.  The  young  men  under  his  influence  he 
taught  to  acquire  knowledge,  and  to  enjoy  it.  He  could 
speak  five  languages  fluently.  Wherever  he  went  he  could 
find  time  for  new  books  and  reviews ;  he  loved  poetry  and 
quoted  it  beautifully. 

After  leaving  Paris  he  went  to  a  Russian  University.  He 
seems  there  to  have  indulged  in  a  good  deal  of  extrava- 
gance, so  he  was  put  into  the  army  and  sent  to  Turkestan. 
In  Turkestan  he  acquired  great  credit,  received  the  cross 
of  Saint  George,  the  highest  reward  of  bravery,  and  was 
made  a  general. 

At  one  time  in  his  career  he  outranked  his  father,  and 
was  delighted  to  tease  the  old  gentleman  by  his  official 
seniority. 

His  successes  in  Turkestan  made  many  men  at  St. 
Petersburg  about  the  court  jealous  of  him.  When  he 
joined  the  Russian  forces  at  Gourgievo  he  was  not  at  first 
given  a  command,  but  was  attached  to  his  father's  staff. 
There  he  was  virtually  in  command.  The  arrangement, 
however,  was  not  destined  to  last  long.  Even  the  envious 
could  not  ignore  his  merits,  and  he  soon  became  the  favorite 
of  the  commander-in-chiefj  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  the 
brother  of  the  czar. 

The  great  strength  of  Skobeleff  lay  in  his  power  over  his 
private  soldiers.  Accustomed  to  abuse  and  blows,  they 
found  nothing  of  the  kind  in  Skobeleff,  who  would  have  no 
flogging  in  his  division,  and  twice  threatened  to  break 
officers  (one  of  them  a  colonel)  for  striking  their  men.  In 
other  parts  of  the  Russian  army  (except  in  the  Cossack 

War."  I  am  indebted  also  to  an  article  in  the  "  Fortnightly  Review," 
by  a  war  correspondent,  Mr.  W.  K.  Rose,  also  to  lives  of  Skobeleff, 
by  Dantchenko  and  Novihoff ,  and  to  miscellaneous  articles  in  French 
and  English  newspapers  and  reviews. 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OP  1877.  24! 

regiments)  blows  from  an  officer  were  considered  part  of 
the  discipline.  Alexander  Verestchagin  relates  that  when 
he  joined  the  Cossacks  at  Gourgievo  he  was  cautioned  at 
once  by  his  brother  officers  to  be  civil  to  his  men. 

Skobeleff  was  never  weary  of  seeing  that  his  soldiers  were 
well-fed,  warmly  clothed,  and  comfortable.  He  was  their 
comrade  as  well  as  their  officer.  Innumerable  are  the 
anecdotes  told  of  the  ways  in  which  he  gained  their  confi- 
dence and  affection,  —  how  he  would  take  a  wounded 
soldier  beside  him  in  his  carriage,  or  fling  his  cloak  over 
another  as  he  lay  upon  the  ground ;  or  how  he  has  been 
known  to  dismount  from  his  white  charger,  and  march  with 
a  weary  regiment,  reviving  its  spirits  with  gay  talk  as  the 
men  toiled  on.  To  all  suffering  he  was  generous  and  full 
of  sympathy. 

I  said  his  soldiers  called  him  "  the  intelligible  general." 
This  was  because  he  explained  to  them  his  orders.  For 
example,  when,  early  in  June,  1877,  they  were  to  cross  to  an 
island  in  the  Danube  to  support  the  boats  which  were  laying 
torpedoes  in  the  river,  the  following  scene  took  place.  The 
officers  were  on  the  point  of  proceeding  with  their  men 
when  Skobeleff  stopped  the  infantry.  "Wait,"  he  said, 
"  you  must  not  go  off  like  that ;  the  soldier  should  always 
know  where  he  is  going,  and  why  he  is  going  there.  The 
soldier  who  knows  what  he  has  to  do,  and  understands  the 
purpose  of  the  expedition  is  a  thousand  times  more  valu- 
able than  an  unconscious  instrument.  The  Cossacks  I  have 
already  talked  to.  Good  morning,  my  good  fellows.  Do 
you  know  where  you  are  going?"  "To  Parapan,  your 
Excellency."  "What  for?"  "To  thrash  the  Turks." 
"  That 's  right.  What 's  your  name  ?  "  "  Ergoroff,  your 
Excellency."  "  You  are  a  smart  fellow.  I  see  that  you 
will  soon  get  the  Saint  George.  Only  we  are  not  going 
to  thrash  the  Turks  just  yet.  We  have  another  job  before 
us  just  now.  We  want  to  cross  the  river,  —  do  you  under- 
stand?" "  Yes,  your  Excellency."  "  Mind  you  do.  We  have 
got  tired  sitting  of  here  among  the  Moldavians,  where  we 

16 


242     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

can't  do  anything  without  money.  There  is  little  work  for 
soldiers  here."  "  Exactly  so,  your  Excellency."  "  Well, 
we  have  come  here  to  fight,  but  the  enemy  over  yonder 
won't  come  to  meet  us.  He  is  too  snug  over  there,  so  we 
must  beat  him  out  of  it.  Let  us  go  and  turn  him  out,  my 
eagles  !  "  This  was  met  with  a  cheer.  "  But  to  turn  him 
out  we  must  first  cross  the  river.  That  is  where  we  shall 
catch  it !  As  soon  as  we  begin  to  cross  over,  the  Turk,  who 
is  no  fool,  will  set  his  monitors  at  our  pontoons  and  our 
flotillas.  You  have  seen  how  those  monitors  can  puff  and 
blow?"  "  Yes,  your  Excellency."  "  He  will  try  to  drown 
us,  but  we  are  more  cunning  than  he.  We  are  going  to  put 
such  mines  in  the  river  that  he  will  be  unable  to  pass  them. 
As  soon  as  he  gets  over  one  of  these  mines  it  will  explode 
and  blow  him  up.  We  mean  to  cross  the  river  under  his 
nose."  "  He  is  quite  different  from  the  others,"  said  the 
soldiers  among  themselves,  "  he  is  a  clever  general,  and 
intelligible." 

In  June,  1877,  wnen  onty  a  small  detachment  of  the 
Russian  army  had  crossed  the  Danube,  and  the  pontoons 
which  had  transported  them  were  being  worked  into  a 
bridge,  Skobeleff  undertook  to  test  if  it  were  possible  to 
swim  cavalry  across,  by  himself  making  the  attempt.  He 
pushed  his  white  charger  into  the  river,  and  here  is  an 
account  of  the  scene,  written  by  Mr.  Rose,  who  watched  him 
breathless  from  the  bank,  standing  beside  the  rough  old 
father :  — 

"  He  wound  his  way  down  the  scarped  clay  cliffs  at  Zirnitza, 
across  a  small  bridge  which  spanned  a  creek,  to  the  island  of 
Ada,  and  then,  entering  the  river,  the  gallant  horse,  guided  by 
Skobeleff 's  skilful  hands  made  for  the  farther  shore.  .  .  .  With 
his  binocular  the  gray-haired  father  followed  the  progress  of  his 
son  and  his  charger  through  the  swift  current.  Then  his  arms 
began  to  shake,  and  his  hands  refused  to  hold  the  glasses  to  his 
eyes.  He  who  had  headed  eight  hundred  troopers  in  a  fierce 
onslaught  upon  five  thousand  Turks  was  unnerved  by  the 
sight  of  so  venturesome  a  deed.  Prince  Tzeretleff,  who  was 
standing  by  his  side  noting  the  slow  course  of  his  comrade  in 


THE   TURKISH   WAR  OF  1877.  243 

his  unequal  struggle  with  the  moving  waters,  in  response  to  the 
earnest  appeals  of  the  old  general,  reported  every  circumstance 
of  the  exciting  adventure.  At  one  time  Skobeleff  was  forced 
to  fling  himself  from  his  saddle  and  to  swim  beside  his  horse. 
Emotion  choked  the  voice  of  the  father  as  this  was  reported 
to  him,  and  he  exclaimed  ever  and  anon,  '  Oh  !  my  brave  boy ! 
Is  he  drowned  yet?'  And  when  young  Skobeleff  touched  the 
little  shelving  bay  below  Sistova  in  safety,  a  ringing  cheer  was 
given  by  the  Russian  soldiery  who  had  witnessed  the  rash 
exploit,  and  the  group  which  surrounded  the  gray-haired  gen- 
eral, echoed  his  '  Thank  God  ! '  as  much  for  his  sake  as  for  the 
sake  of  an  undertaking  almost  unparalleled  in  its  temerity." 

When  the  passage  of  the  Danube  was  made  finally  on  the 
pontoon  bridge,  Skobeleff  shouldered  a  musket  like  a 
private  soldier  and  marched  over  with  the  men. 

He  was  put  into  command  of  a  division ;  every  officer 
under  him  was  devoted  to  him.  He  treated  them  all  when 
off  duty  as  friends  and  comrades ;  but  then  every  one  of 
them  was  expected,  when  occasion  came,  to  lay  down  his 
life  as  an  example  to  his  men.  "  Fear,"  he  has  been  heard 
to  say,  "must  cease  when  a  man  reaches  the  grade  of 
captain." 

" Skobeleff 's  friendship,"  says  Verestchagin,  "meant 
responsibility  and  increased  danger.  The  friend  of 
Skobeleff  was  expected  to  follow  his  own  example.  When 
a  stranger  might  be  excused  or  pardoned,  there  was  no 
mercy  for  a  friend." 

The  army,  having  crossed  the  Danube,  was  in  Bulgaria. 
The  Turks  retired  before  it.  Plevna,  on  the  high-road  to  the 
passes  of  the  Balkans,  was  the  strong  place  they  had  deter- 
mined to  defend.  There  lay  Osman  Pasha  with  his  gallant 
little  army.  The  works  of  defence  (in  which  the  Turks 
excel)  were  very  strong.  Three  times  the  Russians  at- 
tacked the  place,  and  were  repulsed,  —  twice  in  July,  and 
the  third  time  on  the  nth  of  September.  On  this  last  oc- 
casion Skobeleff  s  duty  was  to  take  a  redoubt  on  a  certain 
Green  Hill,  which  he  regarded  as  the  key  to  the  Turkish 
position. 


244-     KUSSIA  AMD  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

He  always  rode  a  white  horse,  and  wore  a  white  coat, 
that  he  might  be  conspicuous  to  his  own  men  during  a 
a  battle.  With  the  usual  address  to  his  soldiers,  he  de- 
spatched them  to  the  redoubt.  He  knew  well  that  he  was 
sending  numbers  of  them  to  death.  They  knew  it,  too ; 
but  they  advanced  right  up  to  the  Turkish  cannon  with 
unflinching  bravery.  One  company,  however,  gave  way. 
In  their  disorder  they  were  encountered  by  Skobeleff  on 
his  white  charger.  "  Follow  me  !  "  he  cried ;  "  I  will 
show  you  how  to  thrash  the  Turks  !  Close  up  there  ! 
Follow  me,  my  men  !  I  will  lead  you  myself.  He  who 
deserts  me  should  be  ashamed  of  himself!  Now  then, 
drummers,  —  look  alive  !  " 

Meantime  —  for  there  was  no  quarter  on  either  side  —  the 
Turks  were  seen  torturing  the  wounded  before  despatching 
them.  This  roused  the  spirit  of  the  Russian  soldiers. 
They  pushed  on  with  fury.  Probably  no  engagement  was 
ever  so  bloody  in  proportion  to  the  men  engaged ;  but 
Skobeleffs  soldiers  won  the  Green  Hill  and  the  redoubt, 
and  planted  two  Russian  flags  upon  it.  All  the  Turks  were 
driven  out  or  slain.  Then  Skobeleff  on  his  white  horse 
(two  that  day  were  killed  under  him)  started  off  to  head- 
quarters to  secure  reinforcements.  The  battle  was  going 
against  the  Russians  in  other  places. 

"  Major  Gortaloff,  you  will  remain  here  in  charge  of  the 
redoubt,"  he  said.  "Can  I  depend  on  you?  You  must 
remain  in  this  position  at  any  price  !  "  "I  will  remain  or 
die,  your  Excellency  !  "  "  Possibly  I  shall  be  unable  to  send 
you  any  reinforcements.  Give  me  your  word  that  you  will  not 
leave  the  redoubt.  This  is  the  key  to  the  enemy's  position. 
Yonder  they  may  not  understand  this  yet.  I  am  going  to 
convince  them  of  it.  Give  me  your  word  that  you  will  not 
leave  the  redoubt."  "  My  honor  is  pledged.  I  will  not 
leave  this  place  alive."  The  major  raised  his  hand  as  if 
taking  an  oath.  Skobeleff  embraced  him.  "  God  help 
you  !  Remember,  my  men ;  there  may  be  no  reinforce- 
ments. Count  only  on  yourselves.  Farewell,  heroes !  " 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  24$ 

But  as  he  took  his  last  glance  at  the  finest  troops  of  his 
division,  he  sighed.  "Consecrated  to  death!"  he  said, 
and  thundered  down  the  hill. 

All  his  efforts  at  headquarters  were  in  vain.  He  could 
not  obtain  a  man  to  reinforce  his  position.  He  burst  into 
tears.  In  vain  he  represented  that  the  redoubt  that  he  had 
won  was  the  key  of  the  position.  There  was  nothing  for 
it  but  to  draw  off  his  men  from  the  Green  Hill,  and  retreat. 
The  colonel  of  one  of  the  regiments  of  Cossack  infantry, 
however,  without  orders,  put  his  men  at  SkobelefPs  disposal 
to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  heroes,  and  bring  as  many  of  them 
off  safe  as  possible. 

"  They  must  all  die,  — my  heroes,  my  lions  !  "  cried  their 
commander,  rising  in  his  saddle,  and  raising  his  cap.  The 
Turks  were  swarming  again  into  the  fortress,  mounting  its 
walls  on  a  rampart  of  dead  bodies.  The  little  garrison,  de- 
fending themselves  with  their  bayonets,  began  to  despair. 
At  last,  through  the  fog  which  that  day  obscured  everything, 
they  saw  comrades  coming  to  their  assistance,  —  Skobeleff 
and  the  Cossacks  who  had  volunteered  to  follow  him. 
There  seemed  to  be  one  line  left,  by  which  they  could  re- 
treat. "Will  you  order  me  to  lead  the  men  off  by  it?" 
said  a  lieutenant  to  the  major.  "We  must  save  the  flags," 
replied  the  old  officer.  "  Wait !  some  one  is  coming  !  It 
may  be  reinforcements.  Can  you  see  what  it  is?  "  "  Yes 
— no  !  It  is  Skobeleff !  But  he  has  only  one  battalion 
with  him.  I  think  he  wants  to  cover  our  retreat.  With  so 
small  a  force  the  Turks  cannot  be  beaten  off." 

There  was  no  hope.  The  old  major  gathered  his  men 
around  him,  and  looked  earnestly  in  their  faces.  "  Com- 
rades, go  !"  he  said.  "Open  your  way  with  your  bayo- 
nets. This  place  can  no  longer  be  held.  God  bless  you, 
my  children  !  Forward !  "  And  bowing  his  head,  he 
reverently  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  his  men.  "  And 
you,  father?"  they  exclaimed.  "I  stay  with  our  dead,"  he 
answered.  "Tell  the  general  I  have  kept  my  word.  Good- 
by,  children  !  "  They  watched  him  as  they  turned  their 


246     RUSSIA  AND   TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

heads  in  their  retreat.  They  saw  him  standing  on  the 
rampart  waving  to  them.  Then  the  Turks  rushed  in, 
and  surrounded  him.  They  saw  the  struggle.  They  saw 
his  body  uplifted  upon  Turkish  bayonets. 

An  English  war  correspondent  describes  Skobeleff  that 
evening  as  he  turned  from  headquarters,  when  he  could 
obtain  no  help  for  those  he  called  his  "  lions."  "  He  was 
in  a  fearful  state  of  excitement  and  fury.  His  uniform  was 
covered  with  mud  and  dirt;  his  sword  was  broken;  his 
cross  of  Saint  George  was  twisted  round  his  shoulders ;  his 
face  was  black  with  powder  and  smoke ;  his  eyes  haggard 
and  bloodshot.  He  spoke  in  a  hoarse  whisper.  I  never 
before  saw  such  a  picture  of  battle  as  he  presented." 

"  I  have  done  my  best,"  he  said  in  the  hearing  of  another 
Englishman.  "  1  could  do  no  more.  I  blame  nobody.  It 
is  the  will  of  God." 

But  Skobeleff  never  recovered  from  the  suffering  of  that 
day.  He  had  sacrificed  his  men  to  win  the  battle  ;  and  the 
battle  was  not  won.  "  Until  the  third  battle  of  Plevna,"  he 
said  to  a  friend,  "  I  was  young ;  but  I  have  come  out  of  it 
an  old  man.  Not,  of  course,  physically  or  intellectually, 
but  I  feel  as  if  years  had  elapsed  since  I  conquered  at 
Lovichska,  and  after  that  our  defeat  at  Plevna.  It  is  a 
nightmare  that  may  tempt  me  to  suicide.  The  recollec- 
tions of  that  place  of  slaughter  are  too  terrible.  I  tell  you 
honestly  I  sought  death  there.  If  I  did  not  find  it,  it  was 
not  my  own  fault." 

After  the  army  retreated  from  Plevna,  he  retired  for  a 
week  or  two  to  Bucharest,  the  capital  of  Roumania.  There 
he  met  General  Todleben  going  to  the  front.  The  two  men 
were  attracted  to  each  other.  Todleben,  the  great  engi- 
neer officer,  who  had  planned  and  superintended,  twenty- 
one  years  before,  the  defence  of  Sebastopol,  was  now  going 
to  plan  works  which  should  take  Plevna,  not  by  assault,  but 
by  starvation. 

By  the  middle  of  October,  1877,  Skobeleff  was  back  again 
at  the  seat  of  war  with  his  division,  about  forty  thousand 


THE    TURKISH   WAR  OF  1877.  247 

men.  Plevna  was  then  closely  invested,  and  he  was  in  pos- 
session of  formidable  redoubts  and  a  long  line  of  trenches. 
The  place  to  which  his  division  was  assigned  was  called 
"  the  works  of  Zelony  Gory." 

But  he  had  no  longer  with  him  the  "  lions  "  and  the 
"  eagles,"  who  had  perished  in  September,  and  whose  fate, 
so  long  as  he  lived,  he  so  bitterly  mourned.  Half  his  force 
consisted  now  of  new  recruits,  whom  he  had  to  train. 

On  several  occasions,  when  he  observed  them  waver 
under  fire,  he  rallied  them,  and  marched  them  back  where 
bullets  were  flying  fast,  and  put  them  through  their  drill  as 
on  a  parade  ground  ;  after  which  he  dismissed  them  to  their 
work,  and  there  was  no  more  faltering. 

Akh  Pasha,  as  the  Turks  called  him  —  the  White  Gen- 
eral —  went  everywhere  on  his  white  horse  in  his  white 
coat  exposing  himself.  His  soldiers  believed  him  invulner- 
able. One  wounded  soldier  solemnly  assured  a  Sister  of 
Mercy  that  he  had  seen  the  bullet  that  shattered  his  own 
arm  pass  through  the  body  of  his  general.  That  general 
would  make  his  own  reconnoissances,  his  personal  repre- 
sentations at  headquarters,  his  personal  inspections  of 
everything,  especially  of  all  that  concerned  the  food  and 
comfort  of  his  men  ;  remonstrances  were  useless.  And  he 
was  only  twice  wounded,  on  which  occasions  the  wounds 
were  slight,  being  severe  contusions.  "  I  must  show  my 
men  how  badly  the  Turks  aim,"  he  said  once  when  stand- 
'ing  as  a  target  to  the  enemy.  "  I  know  how  to  cure  him  of 
exposing  himself,"  cried  a  soldier  in  the  trenches  to  his 
comrades.  "The  first  time  he  jumps  up  on  the  rampart 
above  the  trench  let  us  all  jump  up  after  him."  They  did 
so,  men  and  officers,  and  SkobelefT,  who  could  not  bear 
needlessly  to  expose  his  men,  took  the  hint,  and  for  once 
retired. 

On  the  heights  of  Zelony  Gory  he  lived  several  weeks  in 
the  trenches.  He  forbade  his  soldiers  to  rise  to  salute  him 
as  he  passed,  saying  he  was  constantly  on  his  rounds,  and  it 
would  wear  them  out  unnecessarily. 


248     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX?  u  CENTURY. 

"  I  am  going  to  get  into  an  awful  scrape  at  headquar- 
ters," he  said  one  day  to  a  friend.  "  I  have  been  guilty  of 
flagrant  disobedience  of  orders.  No  one  is  permitted  to 
pass  out  of  Plevna,  where  Osman  Pasha  is  anxious  to  get  rid 
of  useless  mouths.  There  came  this  morning  half  a  dozen 
carts  full  of  Bulgarian  women  and  children  into  my  camp, 
and  I  passed  them  on  in  safety.  I  shall  catch  it ! " 
" Perhaps,"  said  his  friend,  "they  won't  hear  of  it  at  head- 
quarters." "  Oh  !  but  I  reported  it  myself,"  was  the  quick 
answer. 

That  same  day  a  poor  old  Bulgarian  woman  escaping 
from  Plevna,  entered  the  Russian  camp  in  another  direc- 
tion. The  general  commanding  there  ordered  his  Cossacks 
to  scourge  her  with  whips  back  to  the  town. 

At  last  Osman  Pasha  was  starved  out  and  surrendered. 
As  soon  as  the  city  fell  SkobelefT  was  appointed  its  military 
governor.  The  Roumanians  in  the  Russian  army  had 
already  begun  the  plunder  of  the  city.  When  SkobeleiT 
remonstrated  their  officers  replied  :  "  We  are  the  victors, 
and  the  victors  have  a  right  to  the  spoils."  "  In  the  first 
place,"  answered  the  general,  "we  were  never  at  war  with 
the  peaceable  inhabitants  of  this  place,  and  consequently 
cannot  have  conquered  them.  But,  secondly,  please 
acquaint  your  men  that  I  shall  have  victors  of  this  kind 
shot.  Every  man  caught  marauding  shall  be  shot  like  a 
dog.  Please  bear  this  in  mind.  There  is  another  thing. 
You  must  not  insult  women.  Such  conduct  is  very  humili- 
ating. Let  me  tell  you  that  every  such  complaint  will  be 
investigated,  and  every  case  of  outrage  punished." 

A  French  gentleman  who  was  at  Plevna  with  the  officers 
of  the  commander-in-chief  s  staff,  speaks  thus  of  what  he 
saw  of  SkobelefT:  "He  is  a  magnificent  looking  soldier, 
almost  as  tall  as  the  emperor ;  so  that  he  has  to  stoop  to 
enter  any  tent,  and  when  he  is  in  he  cannot  stand  upright. 
He  has  a  fine  head,  keen  blue  eyes,  commanding  forehead, 
and  long  whiskers  and  moustache,  fine,  soft,  and  golden. 
He  is  careful  in  his  dress,  especially  when  going  into  action, 


THE   TURKISH   WAR  OP  1877.  249 

and  dainty  in  his  personal  habits,  loving  shower-baths  and 
perfumery.  On  the  battle-field  he  is  as  brave  as  a  lion,  — 
too  brave  perhaps,  for  he  has  been  known  to  engage  when 
he  was  required  to  remain  inactive." 

This  assertion  I  am  disposed  to  think  a  calumny ;  for  he 
was  very  angry  if  his  soldiers  disobeyed  him  in  the  same 
manner. 

"When  ordered  to  retreat,"  continues  the  Frenchman, 
"he  sheathes  his  sword,  sends  his  white  charger  to  the 
front,  and  remains  on  foot,  the  last  man  in  the  rear,  saying  : 
'  They  may  kill  me  if  they  like,  but  they  shall  not  harm  my 
horse  unless  he  is  advancing  against  the  enemy.'  He  has 
never  quitted  a  battlefield  without  carrying  off  his  wounded, 
nor  has  he  ever,  after  a  battle,  gone  to  rest  without  making 
an  address  to  his  men  and  writing  his  own  report  to  the 
commander-in-chief.  He  is  adored  by  his  soldiers.  It  is 
a  common  saying  that  if  SkobelerT  were  killed  every  Russian 
soldier  in  the  army  would  give  a  kopek  to  raise  his  monu- 
ment. He  is  highly  educated  and  a  sincerely  religious 
man.  '  No  man  can  feel  comfortable  in  facing  death,'  he 
has  been  heard  to  say,  '  who  does  not  believe  in  God  and 
have  hope  of  a  life  to  come.'  Each  evening  in  the  camp 
he  stood  bareheaded,  taking  part  in  the  evening  service 
which  was  chanted  by  fifty  or  sixty  of  his  soldiers." 

This  evening  prayer  struck  our  French  observer 1  as  very 
touching.  "  If  people  in  Paris,"  he  says,  "  who  shed  tears 
over  the  Miserere  in  the  Trovatore,  could  hear  these  simple 
soldiers  in  the  presence  of  death,  addressing  prayers  and 
praises  to  the  Almighty  Father  with  their  whole  hearts, 
they  would  find  it  far  more  moving.  SkobelerT  is  as  distin- 
guished for  his  modesty  as  his  bravery,"  he  continues. 
"  He  never  alludes  to  his  own  deeds  of  valor.  '  My  chil- 
dren,' he  says  to  his  soldiers,  ( I  wear  these  crosses,  but  it 
is  you  who  have  won  them  for  me.'  He  is  a  brilliant  and 
amusing  talker,  a  man  calculated  to  be  the  idol  of  society, 

1  Supplement  Litteraire  du  Figaro. 


25O     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

and  to  shine  among  those  who  are  best  skilled  in  the  arts  of 
making  themselves  agreeable." 

One  little  trait  alluded  to  by  this  writer  I  must  further 
notice.  Skobeleff  was  devoted  to  his  horses,  which  were 
bred  on  his  own  estates,  of  an  Arab  strain.  Cruelty  to  a 
horse  was  almost  as  abhorrent  to  him  as  brutality  to  a  man ; 
and  he  had  a  warm  and  loving  heart  for  little  children. 

After  Skobeleff  the  favorite  Russian  generals  were  Radet- 
sky  (I  know  not  what  relation  to  the  old  Austrian  general) 
and  Gourko,  who  is  still  living.  He  was  said  to  be  always 
ten  leagues  in  advance  of  where  you  would  have  expected  to 
find  him.  Todleben  had  aged  since  the  Crimean  war,  but 
to  him  was  due  the  capture  of  Plevna.  The  other  generals 
had  exhausted  their  troops  in  direct  assaults  upon  the 
works.  Todleben  on  his  arrival  said  :  "  No  more  attacks 
upon  the  works.  Let  us  raise  intrenchment  against  in- 
trenchment ;  let  us  dig ;  let  us  put  our  guns  into  position, 
and  in  a  few  weeks  Osman  Pasha  will  be  starved  out,  and 
will  fall  into  our  hands."  Todleben  knew  many  languages, 
especially  those  of  the  East.  He  was  also  a  great  reader. 
As  Osman  Pasha  slowly  starved  in  Plevna  Todleben  found 
plenty  of  leisure  for  the  improvement  of  his  mind.  Every 
week  a  great  box  of  books  reached  him  from  St.  Peters- 
burg. He  said  his  books  enabled  him  to  wait  patiently  till 
the  Turkish  commander  was  ready  to  surrender. 

As  to  Osman  Pasha,  a  man  who  cost  the  Russians  many 
thousands  of  lives,  he  had  after  his  surrender  no  greater 
admirers  than  the  Russians  themselves.  When  he  was 
brought  into  their  camp  wounded  and  a  prisoner,  everybody 
tried  to  get  an  opportunity  to  compliment  his  defence  of 
the  city.  "I  am.  proud,"  said  Skobeleff,  "to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  the  brilliant  Turkish  general,  whose  valor 
and  genius  I  have  so  much  admired."  Osman  replied, 
"The  Russian  general  is  yet  young,  but  his  fame  is  great. 
He  will  soon  be  the  field-marshal  of  his  army,  and  will 
prove  that  others  may  envy  htm,  but  that  he  has  no  reason 
to  envy  others." 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OP  1877.  2$l 

Before  the  war  the  Emperor  Alexander  was  respected  by 
the  great  mass  of  his  subjects,  but  when  its  successes  began 
there  was  no  end  of  the  adoration  all  Russia  felt  for  him. 
He  had  not  been  anxious  for  war,  but  he  had  been  led  into 
it  by  the  circumstances  of  his  situation.  In  his  first  address 
to  his  army  he  said  :  "  While  you  are  fighting  I  shall  pray 
for  you ;  "  but  he  soon  felt  that  his  true  place  was  on  the 
Danube,  and  he  quitted  St.  Petersburg  for  the  army  in  spite 
of  the  remonstrances  of  his  generals.  When  he  reached 
the  seat  of  war  he  assumed  no  command,  but  he  endeavored 
to  inform  himself  about  everything.  His  presence  seemed 
to  animate  his  soldiers,  who  found  him  kind,  compassionate, 
simple,  and  easy  of  approach. 

The  first  three  failures  before  Plevna  moved  him  greatly. 
His  whole  expression  changed.  He  became  silent,  sad,  and 
thoughtful.  He  felt  himself  compromised  by  such  a  run  of 
ill-success.  How  could  he  return  to  St.  Petersburg  an 
unsuccessful  sovereign?  But  he  never  uttered  a  word  of 
reproach  against  his  generals.  To  more  than  one  who  had 
suffered  defeat  he  said,  taking  him  by  the  arm :  "  My 
poor  friend,  we  must  not  be  discouraged ;  we  shall  do 
better  next  time."  Several  times  he  was  heard  to  say  :  "  If 
we  lose  I  will  never  return  to  Russia.  I  will  die  here  with 
my  brave  soldiers."  He  was  always  ready  to  expose  him- 
himself  to  danger.  His  escort  was  fifty  Cossacks  and  his 
staff  officers.  With  these  he  went  everywhere.  The  Bashi- 
Bazouks  might  have  carried  him  off  twenty  times  had  they 
known  of  his  being  near  them. 

Mr.  Archibald  Forbes  says  of  the  emperor :  - 

"  He  is  a  true  patriot,  earnestly  striving  for  the  welfare  of  his 
country ;  but  he  toils  amid  obstacles ;  he  struggles  in  the  heart 
of  gathered  and  incrusted  impediments,  the  perception  of  which 
on  his  part  must,  it  seems  to  me,  kindle  wrath  which  is  un- 
availing, and  bring  about  misgivings  which  must  awfully  per- 
turb, and  induce  a  despair  which  must  strike  to  his  very  heart." 

Of  the  Russians  Mr.  Forbes  remarks  :  — 

"  The  rank  and  file  are  splendid  soldiers.  The  Russian 
officers  are  courteous  and  gentlemanly.  They  are  delightful 


252     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX?  »  CENTURY. 

comrades,  always  good-tempered  and  cheerful,  commonly  hu- 
mane, and  very  frequently  generous,  and  they  never  decry  an 
enemy.  The  Russian  private  is  astonishing  on  the  march  for 
his  powers  of  endurance,  and  of  carrying  weight.  He  is  handi- 
capped, indeed,  by  many  pounds  more  weight  than  any  other 
soldier  in  the  world.  Patient  and  capable  of  unlimited  endur- 
ance, devoted  to  his  faith  and  to  his  czar,  the  only  thing  the 
Russian  soldier  needs  is  a  gallant  leader.  He  is  destitute  of 
perception  when  left  to  himself ;  somebody  must  do  his  think- 
ing. But  even  if  this  fails  him  he  remains  true  to  his  instincts, 
and  stands  up  to  be  killed  in  '  noble  stubbornness  of  ignorance,' 
rather  than  retire  when  there  is  no  one  left  to  give  him  orders. 
The  Turk,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  born  soldier,  capable  at  any 
time  of  acting  for  himself  in  the  absence  of  any  officer." 

But  with  high  admiration  for  the  Russian  military  force, 
Mr.  Forbes  cannot  speak  strongly  enough  of  the  corruption 
that  prevails  in  every  department  of  Russian  administration 
and  paralyzes  the  operations  of  a  gallant  army.  Contractors 
who  made  money  out  of  our  own  war  seem  honest  patriots 
beside  the  Russian  functionaries  employed  by  the  govern- 
ment to  superintend  the  contractors.  Skobeleff  got  rid  of 
them  all  by  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  commissariat. 
His  men  were  fed,  and  well  fed,  by  the  care  of  their 
captains.  But  their  arms  were  defective  and  their  boots 
wretchedly  poor.  Each  man  in  place  and  power,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest,  had  some  man  higher  than  himself  to 
favor  and  sustain  him.  Everything  hinged  on  favoritism, 
even  a  boy's  examination  at  school ;  and  favoritism  of  course 
led  to  intrigue.  Then,  too,  few  Russians  high  in  office  (or 
indeed  elsewhere)  have  any  relish  for  responsibility. 

"The  Turks,"  said  Mr.  Forbes,  "in  my  opinion,  com- 
mitted two  military  blunders.  One  may  surely  be  remem- 
bered to  their  honor,  and  it  was  probably  due  to  the 
indignation  excited  against  them  throughout  Christendom 
by  the  atrocities  committed  eighteen  months  earlier  on 
Bulgarians,  south  of  the  Balkans.  When  the  Russians 
crossed  the  Danube  into  Bulgaria,  the  Turks  fell  back, 
leaving  that  rich  province  to  the  occupation  of  the  Russian 
army.  All  Turks  who  were  resident  in  its  towns  and  villages 


THE    TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  2$$ 

were  ordered  to  retire  south  of  the  Turkish  lines,  while  the 
Christian  Bulgarians  were  left  entirely  free  to  welcome  and 
provision  the  invader." 

Then,  being  barbarians,  "the  Turks,  in  a  military  point 
of  view,"  thinks  Mr.  Forbes,  "might  have  taken  their 
stand  as  being  such,  and  have  warned  all  Christendom  that 
they  meant  to  make  war  accordingly ;  "  instead  of  which 
"  they  tried,"  as  he  phrases  it,  "  to  profit  in  actual  warfare  by 
their  barbarian  instincts,  and  yet  plough  with  the  heifer  of 
civilization.  The  Bashi-Bazouks  might  be  seen  after  every 
battle  torturing  and  slaughtering  the  Russian  wounded. 
This  mode  of  fighting  had  its  inevitable  result  upon  the 
Russian  soldier." 

And  who  were  the  Bashi-Bazouks,  who  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  inhumanity?  They  were  irregular  and 
most  banditti-like  cavalry,  who  wore  the  Turkish  dress,  but 
were  recruited  from  the  scum  of  every  nation.  They  served 
rather  for  permission  to  plunder  than  for  adequate  pay. 
During  the  Crimean  War  some  of  them  were  officered  by 
Frenchmen,  and  served  with  the  allied  army.  They  nearly 
wore  out  the  lives  of  their  officers  by  their  irregularities. 
Finally  they  were  paid  off  and  dismissed.  Their  officers, 
travelling  the  same  road  through  a  friendly  country,  along 
which  they  had  passed  a  few  days  before,  were  horrified  by 
reports  of  the  atrocities  they  had  committed. 

And  now  to  return  to  Mikhail  Dimitrivitch  Skobeleff,  made 
governor  of  Plevna.  The  Emperor  Alexander,  on  arriving 
there,  sent  him  word  that  he  was  coming  to  take  luncheon 
with  him.  He  came,  with  his  staff.  Skobeleff  was  prepared 
to  wait,  as  host,  on  his  illustrious  company,  but  the  emperor 
made  him  sit  down  with  him.  Nothing  was  said  by  which 
Skobeleff  could  divine  the  purpose  of  this  visit.  He  thought 
indeed  that  it  betokened  the  imperial  displeasure,  when 
the  emperor,  suddenly  rising,  asked  him  to  show  him  his 
house.  The  staff  rose  also.  "No,  gentlemen,"  said  Alex- 
ander, "  the  general  and  I  will  go  alone." 

Skobeleff  conducted  the  emperor  through  his  apartments, 


254    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

when  Alexander  turned  suddenly  and  kissed  him.  "  I 
thank  thee,  Skobeleff,"  he  cried,  "  for  all  that  thou  hast 
done  !  For  thy  good  service,  many,  many  thanks  !  "  And 
he  kissed  him  again. 

This  was  well  done  on  Alexander's  part.  Such  a  mark 
of  favor  shown  publicly  would  have  brought  down  enmity 
and  calumny  on  Skobeleff,  and  might  have  increased  his 
unpopularity  among  courtiers  and  generals. 

The  month  was  November,  and  the  weather  north  of  the 
Balkans  was  growing  bitterly  cold.  Skobeleff  foresaw  that 
the  Russians  must  soon  cross  the  mountains,  and  he  was 
deeply  solicitous  about  the  equipment  of  his  men.  He 
bought  up  all  the  sheepskins,  boots,  and  other  necessaries 
he  could  find  in  Plevna.  He  changed  their  heavy  knap- 
sacks for  bags  of  linen.  He  was  particularly  desirous  they 
should  have  the  comfort  of  fur  coats.  There  came  a  dealer 
from  Russia  with  a  consignment  of  such  articles.  Skobeleff 
went  to  the  old  general  his  father,  and  invited  him  to  ride 
with  him  to  inspect  them.  The  garments  were  satisfactory. 
The  two  generals  saw  them  packed  and  sent  off  to  young 
Skobeleff's  division.  As  the  generals  were  mounting  their 
horses  the  dealer  asked  to  whom  he  should  send  the  bill. 
"  Oh,  to  my  father,"  replied  Skobeleff,  pointing  to  the  old 
general ;  and  then,  turning  quickly  to  his  escort,  he  said  : 
"  Children,  thank  my  father.  He  gives  all  the  regiment  fur 
overcoats." 

In  vain  old  Skobeleff  fumed  and  remonstrated.  He  had 
to  pay  the  bill.  It  is  just  to  him  to  say  that  although  he 
was  penurious,  the  very  lavish  habits  of  his  son  had  brought 
him  in  from  time  to  time  large  debts  which  he  had  to  settle 
satisfactorily. 

At  Plevna  young  Skobeleff  kept  open  house.  "  His  din- 
ner table  was  surrounded,"  says  one  of  his  friends,  "  by  the 
most  variegated  company."  "  I  call  it  an  eating  house," 
said  the  old  general  one  day,  as  he  entered  the  dining- 
room. 

When  the  time  came  for  resuming  the  march,  in  the 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  2$$ 

middle  of  December,  Skobeleff  s  divison  was  to  cross  the 
Balkans  by  a  pass  in  the  Tscherna  Gora  range  leading  to 
Senova.  The  main  army  was  to  take  the  Shipka  Pass.  One 
precaution  the  general  took  which  caused  much  amusement 
among  his  brother  officers.  Each  man  of  his  division  was 
ordered  to  carry  a  log  of  wood  with  him.  "  What  will  he 
think  of  next?  "  said  some.  "  If  Skobeleff  has  ordered  it," 
said  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  "  he  has  some  good  reason." 

He  had,  indeed,  good  reasons.  He  always  insisted  that 
his  men  under  all  circumstances  should  have  three  hot 
meals  a  day.  He  knew  that  there  would  be  no  firewood 
on  the  summit  of  the  Balkans.  In  consequence  of  his 
precautions  not  one  man  of  his  division  arrived  disabled  or 
frozen  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountain  range.  Not  one 
had  straggled.  The  only  men  that  the  division  lost  were 
two  who  slipped  and  fell  over  a  precipice. 

The  soldiers  who  crossed  the  Shipka  Pass  suffered  fright- 
fully. Alexander  Verestchagin,  who  passed  over  it  a  week 
or  two  later  in  a  carriage,  relates  that  he  saw  pile  after  pile 
of  frozen  Russian  corpses,  many  of  them  young  men  of  the 
Imperial  Guard.  They  could  not  be  buried.  They  were 
piled  up  to  await  the  thawing  of  the  earth  and  the  melt- 
ing of  the  snow. 

Skobeleffs  passage  to  Senova,  though  safely  accomplished, 
was  an  awful  journey.  The  men  had  to  break  their  way 
through  snow-drifts.  They  had  to  put  their  cannon  upon 
sledges,  and  drag  them  along  by  hand. 

On  the  third  day  they  debouched  into  the  Valley  of 
Roses,  which  lies  between  the  greater  Balkans  and  a  lesser 
chain.  This  valley  is  a  little  paradise  in  summer,  devoted 
to  the  cultivation  of  roses  for  the  attar  of  roses,  which  the 
Turks  so  much  prize. 

Here  Skobeleff  and  his  division  fought  their  great  battle 
of  Dec.  28,  1877,  and  here  Turkey  lost  her  last  army. 

"  I  congratulate  you,  my  men,"  said  Skobeleff,  when  they 
were  drawn  up  in  order  of  battle ;  "  throughout  this  war  the 
28th  has  been  to  us  a  day  of  good  fortune." 


256     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Skobeleff  always  made  his  bands  play  when  going  into 
action.  He  said  that  martial  airs  wonderfully  kept  up  the 
courage  of  the  soldiers.  Radetsky  and  his  men  shared  the 
honors  of  the  day  with  Skobeleff,  much  as  Blucher  and  his 
Prussians  shared  the  honors  of  Waterloo.  They  descended 
from  the  mountain  into  the  valley  as  the  battle  was  being  won. 

I  need  not  describe  the  battle.  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
the  Cossack  cavalry  were  very  effective,  and  that  regiments 
kept  coming  down  the  Shipka  Pass  as  the  battle  raged,  and 
went  immediately  into  action.  There  was  a  great  deal  of 
hand-to-hand  fighting  in  the  earth-works  thrown  up  by  the 
Turks.  In  such  encounters  the  Russians  would  never  look 
full  in  their  foes'  faces,  it  being  a  superstition  that  the 
glance  of  a  man  you  kill  will  always  haunt  you. 

At  last  the  Turks  put  out  two  white  flags.  The  Turkish 
pashas  in  command  surrendered  themselves  and  their  whole 
army. 

Skobeleff  s  first  order  was  :  "  Let  the  Turks'  property  be 
sacred  to  us.  Let  not  a  crumb  of  theirs  be  lost.  Warn  the 
men  I  will  shoot  them  for  stealing." 

"  I  shall  never  forget,"  says  Mr.  Kinnaird  Rose,  "  a  solemn 
service  for  the  repose  of  the  souls  of  the  dead  that  was  held 
on  that  battle-field  of  Senova  by  the  general  and  a  score  of 
companions.  Skobeleff 's  chaplain  chanted  the  mass,  with  a 
simple  dragoon  for  clerk.  Every  head  was  uncovered.  The 
party  stood  in  respectful  groups  around  a  monumental  column 
with  its  cross,  the  general  to  the  right  of  the  priest.  .  .  .As  the 
service  progressed  the  general  wept  like  a  child,  and  among  the 
small  but  deeply  moved  congregation,  there  were  but  few  dry 
eyes." 

Thirty-five  thousand  men,  and  one  hundred  and  thirteen 
guns  were  surrendered.  "  The  scoundrels  !  "  muttered 
Skobeleff,  —  "  to  give  up  with  such  a  force,  and  with  such 
a  position  ! " 

With  the  two  Turkish  generals,  as  soon  as  they  became 
his  prisoners,  Skobeleff  rode,  accompanied  by  three  or  four 
Russians  only,  and  a  number  of  Turks,  to  a  distant  part  of 


THE    TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877. 


257 


the  field  to  stop  the  fighting.  "  No  wonder,"  cried  the  Turks, 
"  that  we  were  beaten ;  for  the  Russians  were  commanded 
by  Akh  Pasha,  and  it  is  impossible  to  overcome  him  !  " 

Every  kindness  was  shown  the  prisoners.  They  mingled 
with  Skobeleff  s  men,  and  shared  the  porridge  from  their 
camp-kettles.  The  next  day  they  were  sent  over  the  moun- 
tains, and  on  the  journey  their  sufferings  were  terrible. 
Verestchagin  met  parties  of  them  on  the  mountain,  and  saw 
many  frozen  corpses  lying  where  they  had  halted. 

"  Skobeleff  s  care  for  his  men,"  writes  one  who  loved  him, 
"grew  greater  and  greater  as  time  advanced.  His  heart 
bled  for  them ;  every  insult,  every  injustice  to  the  private 
he  felt  keenly.  It  was  as  if  the  insult  had  been  aimed  at 
him  personally.  He  would  grow  pale  with  rage  when  he 
was  told  how  in  one  division  the  men  were  starved,  how  in 
another  they  were  flogged,  and  how  in  another  their  lives 
were  sacrificed  in  useless  reconnoissances  in  force." 

On  Jan.  i,  1878,  the  third  day  after  the  battle  of  Senova, 
Skobeleff  s  division  was  on  its  way  to  cross  the  Lower 
Balkans.  It  was  a  forced  march,  thirty  and  even  fifty 
miles  a  day,  —  the  infantry,  encouraged  by  their  general, 
keeping  well  up  with  the  cavalry.  The  Turkish  pashas 
stood  aghast  at  the  rapidity  of  his  march  on  Adrianople ; 
and  after  a  fight  with  Suleiman  Pasha,  whose  men  fled  to 
the  mountains,  the  victorious  little  army  entered  the  second 
city  of  the  Turkish  Empire. 

The  soldiers  were  billeted  in  the  houses  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, strictly  ordered  to  behave  well,  and  not  to  appear 
in  the  streets  for  two  days.  By  the  end  of  that  time 
they  had  made  friends  with  the  population.  The  shops 
were  reopened.  There  was  not  one  instance  of  theft  or 
burglary,  —  not  a  street  row.  When  Skobeleff  left  the  city 
it  was  occupied  by  other  divisions,  and  all  this  was  changed. 

"And  now  God  grant,"  said  Skobeleff,  speaking  of  the 
success  of  his  forced  march,  and  relating  how  he  had 
entered  Adrianople  without  one  man  sick  in  his  division  ; 
"  God  grant  that  we  may  soon  be  in  Constantinople  !  " 

17 


258     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX  rir  CENTURY. 

"  Adrianople  (which  the  Turks  call  Edirme)  seemed  to  me," 
says  the  writer  from  whom  I  have  just  quoted,  "  like  a  poetical 
dream.  It  is  a  beautiful  town,  crowned,  as  it  were,  by  the 
Mosque  of  Selim  with  its  four  beautiful  minarets.  Its  fortifica- 
tions are  wonderful.  Skobeleff  was  anxious  to  know  the 
engineer.  He  saw  him  afterward  in  Constantinople,  and  found 
him  an  entirely  self-educated  man,  neither  bright  nor  prepossess- 
ing, but  with  a  genius  for  fortification." 

The  house  Skobeleff  occupied  in  Adrianople  belonged  to 
a  renegade,  a  famous  leader  of  Bashi-Bazouks,  a  scourge  of 
peaceful  citizens.  It  was  a  marvel  of  luxury,  —  tropical 
plants  in  winter  gardens,  marble  halls,  poetical  fountains, 
every  appliance  for  self-indulgence.  Skobeleff  chose  the 
plainest  room  he  could  find,  and  his  staff  occupied  those 
more  magnificent. 

He  governed  Adrianople  as  he  had  formerly  governed 
Plevna.  "Everybody,"  said  a  Turk,  "thinks  it  an  honor 
to  serve  Akh  Pasha.  There  are  no  generals  like  him.  The 
Koran  says  we  must  obey  him."  "  How  do  you  make  that 
out  ?  "  said  his  questioner.  "  The  Koran  says  :  '  Be  subject 
to  your  conquerors ;  there  is  no  power  greater  than  the 
sword.'  "  "  Let  the  White  Czar  make  thee  ruler  here,"  said 
others  to  the  White  Pasha ;  "  we  desire  nothing  better." 

In  about  a  fortnight  Skobeleff  s  division  was  marched  to 
the  borders  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  only  a  short  distance 
from  Constantinople.  Peace  negotiations  were  already  in 
progress ;  and  soon  was  signed  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano. 
The  treaty  was  not  all  that  the  Russians  had  hoped ;  but 
such  as  it  was,  almost  all  its  provisions  in  their  favor  were 
set  aside  by  the  European  Congress  at  Berlin  ;  for  the  police 
policy  of  Europe  interfered,  and  the  czar  had  either  to  risk 
a  European  war,  or  have  the  settlement  of  the  Eastern 
Question  taken  out  of  his  hands. 

Skobeleff  raged  when  he  found  the  Russian  army  was  not 
even  to  enter  Constantinople.  There  were  moments  when 
he  debated  with  himself  whether  he  would  not  on  his  own 
responsibility  take  the  city  without  orders,  and  break  the 
meshes  of  diplomacy. 


GENERAL  SKOBELEFF. 


THE    TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  2$$ 

"  I  would  hold  a  congress  in  Constantinople  —  here  f  " 
he  said,  "  and  would  myself  preside,  if  I  were  emperor, 
with  three  hundred  thousand  bayonets  to  back  me,  — 
prepared  for  any  eventuality.  Then  we  could  talk  to 
them  !  " 

"  But  suppose  all  Europe  should  oppose  you?  " 

"  There  are  moments  when  one  must  act,  —  when  it  is 
criminal  to  be  too  cautious  !  We  may  have  to  wait  cen- 
turies for  so  favorable  an  opportunity.  You  think  the  bull- 
dogs would  fight  us  ?  Never  !  It  should  be  our  duty  to 
defend  this  —  our  own  city  —  with  the  last  drop  of  our 
blood  !  " 

The  English  in  Constantinople  admired  Skobeleff  im- 
mensely when,  like  other  Russian  officers,  he  went  into  the 
city  in  plain  clothes.  "  I  must  tell  you,  general,  honestly," 
said  an  English  lady,  with  more  candor  than  good-breed- 
ing, "  that  I  hate  the  Russians."  "  And  I  only  see  a 
beautiful  woman  before  me,"  replied  Skobeleff,  "and, 
without  asking  what  nation  she  belongs  to,  must  do  her 
homage." 

We  see  by  this  how  deep  is  the  Russian  desire  to  possess 
Constantinople.  It  never  slumbers ;  and  in  our  present 
century  it  breaks  out  about  every  fifteen  years. 

Skobeleff  was  one  of  those  who  dream  of  a  Pan-Slavonic 
federation.  He  thought  the  Slav  States  could  be  federated 
like  those  in  the  German  Empire,  strong  to  oppose  outside 
influence,  but  internally  at  liberty  to  govern  their  own 
affairs ;  and  Russia  was  to  possess  the  power  in  this  feder- 
ation that  Prussia  has  in  Germany.  But  the  Great  Powers 
are  wholly  unwilling  to  favor  any  such  aggrandizement  of 
Russian  power  and  influence. 

For  a  time  after  the  war  ended  Skobeleff  remained 
governor  of  Bulgaria ;  and  he  governed  it  admirably  as  a 
Russian  province,  until  he  resigned  it  into  the  hands  of 
Prince  Dondoukoff-Koursakoff,  and  thence  was  transferred 
to  Alexander  of  Battenberg. 

The  Congress  of  Berlin  was  assembled  to  set  aside  the 


26O    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Treaty  of  San  Stefano  and  to  diminish  as  much  as  possible 
the  influence  of  Russia  in  the  Eastern  Question.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  and  Prince  Bismarck  took  the  lead  in  it ;  and 
all  the  other  leading  European  statesmen  were  present.  The 
treaty  as  amended  by  the  Congress  was  signed  July  13, 
1878. 

In  brief  it  contained  six  stipulations  :  — 

I.  Bessarabia,  torn  from  Russia  after  the  Crimean  War, 
was  to  be  returned  to  her. 

II.  Bulgaria  was  formed  into  a  principality ;  but  only  that 
part  lying  north  of  the  Balkans. 

III.  Servia  and  Montenegro  were  to  receive  additional 
territory,  and  to  pay  Turkey  no  more  tribute. 

IV.  Greece  received  a  better  boundary  line,  giving  her 
more  of  Macedonia. 

V.  Bosnia    and    Herzegovina,    unprovided    for   by  the 
Treaty  of  San  Stefano,  were  placed  under  the  protection 
of  Austria. 

VI.  Russia  received  some  towns  and  territories  in  Asia 
Minor,  and  Batoum,  an  important  sea-port  on  the  Black  Sea. 

By  a  secret  stipulation,  England  was  to  receive  from 
Turkey  the  Island  of  Cyprus,  as  a  set-off  against  Russian 
acquisitions  in  Armenia. 

No  one  can  admire  the  corrupt  and  brutal  Russian  ad- 
ministration, nor  the  organization  of  its  police,  —  which, 
by  the  way,  Skobeleff  hated  so  cordially  that  he  would 
never  have  anything  to  do  with  any  officer  or  soldier  who 
had  served  under  him,  if  he  disgraced  himself  by  joining 
it,  —  but  one  cannot  but  feel  that  Russia  was  most  ungen- 
erously treated  by  the  Congress.  Hers  had  been  the  blood 
and  the  money  that  had  been  expended ;  and  what  did  she 
get  in  return? 

"No  great  power  shall  have  Constantinople  with  my  con- 
sent," said  the  first  Napoleon  ;  and  this  view  has  guided  the 
police  policy  of  Europe  to  the  present  day. 

Skobeleffs  opinion  was  that  a  great  European  war  was  not 
far  distant,  and  that  it  would  begin  by  a  struggle  for  life  or 


THE   TURKISH  WAR  OF  1877.  26 1 

death  between  Russia  and  Germany.  He  hoped  to  be  in 
it,  and  yet  he  expected  an  early  death. 

In  1880  his  father  died,  leaving  him,  to  his  great  surprise, 
an  enormous  fortune.  He  was  at  once  full  of  plans  for  do- 
ing good  with  it  to  old  or  disabled  soldiers.  I  do  not  know 
whether  his  intentions  have  been  carried  into  effect. 

In  1880  he  requested  the  command  of  an  expedition  to 
subdue  the  Tekke" ,  —  the  Russian  name  for  Tartar  robbers, 
who  persisted  in  attacking  the  Russians  in  Turkestan.  These 
people  had  a  mountain  fastness  called  Geok  Tepi.  It  had 
resisted  all  attempts  to  take  it,  and  had  utterly  discomfited 
other  Russian  commanders. 

Skobeleff  felt  it  to  be,  as  he  said,  "  a  difficult  business  — 
very  difficult.  A  large  army,"  he  continued,  "  cannot  be 
taken  there.  The  thieves  have  cost  Russia  quite  enough 
money  as  it  is ;  and  if  we  do  not  give  them  the  coup  de 
grace,  all  our  Turkestan  possessions  will  find  themselves  in 
a  precarious  state."  He  had  grown  older  and  sadder  and 
more  discreet  before  this  expedition,  in  which  he  was  bril- 
liantly successful,  —  not  more  in  his  storming  of  Geok  Tepi 
than  he  was  in  winning  the  confidence  of  the  Tekke",  and  in 
punishing  and  circumventing  the  deliquencies  of  officials  in 
the  commissariat. 

He  was  less  excitable,  less  lavish  than  he  had  been.  In 
all  else  he  was  the  same  as  ever.  When  he  came  from  the 
East,  he  went  to  Paris ;  and  there,  and  at  Warsaw,  he  made 
Pan-Slavist  speeches,  the  sentiments  of  which  were  disavowed 
by  his  government,  and  created  considerable  stir  in  diplo- 
matic and  journalistic  circles.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had 
taken  any  part  in  politics.  He  had  said  that  "  in  the  field 
it  was  his  duty  to  be  only  a  soldier." 

A  friend,  who  saw  him  after  he  returned  from  the  East, 
was  struck  by  his  air  of  depression  and  despondency,  and 
got  him  to  talk  about  his  campaign.  "  It  is  not  the  expedi- 
tion," said  Skobeleff,  "  which  has  had  such  an  effect  on  me, 
although  there  were  some  terrible  moments.  My  army  was 
small  —  but  what  of  that  ?  I  have  faced  worse  foes  than  the 


262     RUSSIA  AND    TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Tekke" .  The  death  of  my  mother,  however,  has  been  a  very 
great  blow  to  me.  Her  murdered  body  seems  always  before 
me.  And  who  did  it  but  one  who  owes  his  all  —  positively 
his  all  —  to  me  !  I  went  about  like  a  madman  for  the  first 
few  days.  Her  image  is  still  before  me  as  if  she  were  calling 
me.  Do  you  know,  I  think  I  have  not  long  to  live.  " 

This  mother  —  so  dear  to  him  —  was  extremely  beautiful. 
He  was  always,  to  her,  "  her  boy."  When  her  husband  died 
she  went  into  Bulgaria,  and  found  comfort  in  her  bereave- 
ment in  the  organization  of  schools,  hospitals,  and  orphan- 
ages. Her  son  had  detailed,  as  her  guard  and  attendant, 
one  of  his  own  aides-de-camp,  a  young  Russian  whom  he 
had  literally  out  of  compassion  raised  to  the  position  he 
then  held.  This  scoundrel  formed  the  diabolical  plan  of 
murdering  Madame  Skobeleff  and  robbing  her  of  her  jewels 
and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  she  was  carrying  with  her 
for  distribution  to  her  various  charities.  He  effected  his 
object  on  a  journey  from  Philippolis  to  Sofia.  Skobeleff 
received  the  news  in  Turkestan ;  and  the  deep  emotion  it 
caused  him,  from  which  he  never  recovered,  may  have  had 
its  influence  on  his  own  fate. 

"  On  Skobeleff's  last  visit  to  Moscow,"  writes  one  of  his 
friends,  "  he  invited  me  to  dine  with  him  two  or  three  days 
ahead.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  I  was  to  do  so  my  man 
ran  into  my  room,  crying,  '  The  general  is  dead  ! '  *  What 
general?'  'General  Skobeleff!"  The  man  burst  into  tears. 
I  hurried  to  the  hotel.  A  crowd  thronged  the  street,  weeping 
and  praying  for  his  soul.  The  body  had  been  brought  from 
his  bedroom  into  a  small  antechamber.  Only  the  evening  be- 
fore he  had  been  gayly  chatting  with  some  of  his  old  staff 
officers.  He  died,  the  doctors  said,  of  heart  disease.  He  lay, 
when  I  arrived,  not  yet  dressed  in  his  uniform,  his  body  covered 
with  a  pall  of  cloth  of  gold.  Loud  sobs  were  audible  all  around. 
The  light  fell  full  on  his  delicate,  handsome  face,  on  his  long 
golden  whiskers  combed  out  on  each  side,  which  stirred  occa- 
sionally in  the  breeze  as  if  he  were  living.  Two  sentries  soon 
appeared,  to  stand  beside  him.  Discipline  forbade  them  to  raise 
their  hands  to  their  faces,  but  one  man's  tears  were  trickling 
down  his  beard." 


THE   TURKISH   WAR  OF  1877.  26$ 

There  still  hangs  deep  mystery  over  the  cause  of  the 
death  of  Skobeleff.  Recently  the  Figaro  called  on  any  of 
its  readers  who  knew  anything  authentic  on  the  subject  jto 
answer  the  question :  "  Are  the  circumstances  of  General 
Skobeleffs  death  sufficiently  known  to  enable  us  to  dis- 
entangle fact  from  fiction  ?  " 

The  question  produced  two  answers  :  one  from  Madame 
Juliette  Adam,  Skobeleffs  especial  friend  and  admirer; 
the  other  from  M.  Ivan  de  Wcestyne,  the  only  newspaper 
correspondent  who  was  in  Moscow  at  the  date  of  Skobeleffs 
death. 

Madame  Adam  had  already  published  a  pamphlet  on 
the  subject,  in  which  she  exposed  her  reasons  for  believing 
that  he  was  foully  murdered  by  two  German  adventuresses, 
paid  for  the  crime  out  of  the  Guelph  fund. 

M.  de  Wcestyne's  communication  is  as  follows :  — 

"  I  affirm  that  the  idea  of  foul  play  in  the  death  of  the  late 
illustrious  general  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine  must  be  laid  aside. 
I  had  visited  Skobeleff  the  morning  before  his  death,  and  he 
had  asked  me  to  breakfast  with  him  the  next  morning. 

"  By  chance  I  met  him  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  in 
the  Tverskaia,  the  great  avenue  which  leads  to  the  Park.  ...  He 
stopped  his  carriage,  and  asked  me  to  go  with  him.  I  declined, 
and  saw  him  no  more  till  the  next  day,  when  he  was  laid  out  in 
full  uniform  in  the  apartment  on  the  ground-floor  of  the  Hotel 
Dussaud,  occupied  in  1878  by  Mademoiselle  Stella,  the  singer. 

"  I  had  a  full  account  of  his  death  from  an  employ^  of  the 
chancellerie  who  lived  just  over  the  room  on  the  ground-floor 
where  he  was  carried  off  by  a  congestion.  This  apartment  was 
in  a  house  at  the  end  of  a  courtyard,  the  front  of  which  was 
occupied  by  a  French  hair-dresser  and  a  Russian  liquor-dealer, 
people  always  ready  to  talk. 

"  I  telegraphed  all  I  learned,  in  four  languages,  to  the  '  New 
York  Herald,'  hoping  by  this  means  to  escape  the  censorship. 

"  At  one  in  the  morning  I  was  awakened  by  the  head  of  the 
telegraph  office,  who  told  me  Prince  Dolgorouki,  the  governor- 
general  of  Moscow,  wished  to  see  me. 

"  I  went  at  once  to  the  palace,  where  the  prince,  after  shaking 
hands  with  me,  laid  before  me  three  of  my  despatches. 


264     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX^H  CENTURY. 


"  «  Did  you  telegraph  that  ?  '  he  asked. 

"  «  Yes,  general.' 

"  And  then,  as  the  excellent  old  man  seemed  greatly  disturbed 
to  think  that  I  had  done  so,  I  added  at  once  :  — 

"  *  I  sent  another  dispatch  to  New  York,  saying  :  "  Now  that 
you  have  all  details  in  your  possession,  I  think,  seeing  the  great 
celebrity  of  the  person  they  concern,  you  had  better  withhold 
them  from  the  public,  and  simply  announce  his  death."  ' 

"  When  the  prince  heard  this,  he  seemed  overjoyed,  and  in- 
sisted I  should  sit  down  to  supper  with  him. 

"The  *  New  York  Herald  '  withheld  its  information,  but  some 
years  after,  annoyed  by  all  sorts  of  irrational  and  contradictory 
reports,  I  published  what  I  knew  in  the  '  Gaulois.'  But  I  am  not 
inclined  to  tell  a  second  time  a  story  for  relating  which  I  have 
been  reproached  by  some  of  my  very  good  friends  among  the 
Russians." 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  over  the  death  of  Skobeleff  still 
hangs  a  mystery. 

His  funeral  procession  from  Moscow  to  his  estates  was 
such  as  could  only  have  been  given  to  one  whom  all  men 
loved.  All  over  Russia  and  in  Bulgaria  masses  were  said 
for  him.  "  He  was  one  of  our  own,"  said  the  peasant  and 
the  soldier. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE   ASSASSINATION   OF   ALEXANDER   II. 

*~PHE  remaining  three  years  of  Alexander  II. 's  life  after  the 
-*•  conclusion  of  the  Turkish  war  were  very  miserable. 
Indeed  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  any  human  being  of  whom 
it  might  so  truly  have  been  said  :  "  Without  were  fightings, 
and  within  were  fears,"  —  fears,  less  for  his  own  life,  for  life 
could  hardly  have  been  dear  to  him,  than  for  all  those  whom  he 
treated  with  confidence,  or  who  surrounded  him.  Not  only 
were  his  ministers  killed  under  orders  of  the  Revolutionary 
Committee,  but  policemen  and  Cossacks  who  were  placed 
about  his  person  for  his  safety.  Society  in  St.  Petersburg 
would  not  buy  tickets  for  the  Opera  when  it  was  known  that 
the  emperor  was  likely  to  attend  the  performance,  fearing 
some  dynamite  explosion ;  office-seekers  were  discouraged 
by  the  perils  of  an  official  position ;  daily  black-bordered 
letters  threatening  the  emperor's  death  were  found  among 
his  clothes,  or  among  his  papers.  On  one  occasion  his 
handkerchief  was  filled  with  some  explosive  powder,  which 
injured  his  sight  for  a  time ;  on  another  a  box  of  pills  sent 
him  as  a  remedy  for  asthma  proved  to  contain  a  very  small 
but  very  powerful  infernal  machine.  No  wonder  that 
though  only  fifty-nine  years  of  age  he  grew  haggard  and 
pale,  that  his  hair  was  blanched,  his  form  shrunken,  and  his 
nerves  unstrung.  He  suffered,  too,  from  sleeplessness,  from 
overwork,  and  the  continual  strain  of  anxiety. 

The  causes  of  his  unpopularity  with  Nihilists  and  Pan- 
Slavists  were  manifold.  By  the  peasantry  his  memory  is 
still  adored,  as  I  should  think  it  still  must  be  by  all  who 


266     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1XTH  CENTURY. 

can  appreciate  what  the  aim  of  his  life  was,  and  can  echo 
the  words  of  Mr.  Gladstone  :  "  The  sole  labor  of  a  devoted 
life  was,  with  the  deceased  sovereign,  to  improve  his  inheri- 
tance for  the  benefit  of  his  subjects  and  of  mankind." 

He  had  undertaken  a  work  too  vast  for  him,  —  a  work 
for  which  he  had  at  hand  no  fitting  materials  ;  and  it  resulted 
in  lost  illusions,  and  in  disappointments  visited  by  others  on 
himself;  for  it  is  one  of  the  penalties  of  autocracy  that  the 
emperor  is  held  responsible  for  everything,  —  bad  harvests, 
pestilence,  or  the  abuse  of  power  by  officials  who  are  sup- 
posed to  have  little  individual  responsibility. 

The  new  conditions  of  existence  opened  to  the  peasants 
after  the  Emancipation  had  not  worked  as  popular  enthu- 
siasm had  anticipated.  The  peasants  retained  their  devotion 
to  their  czar,  but  they  had  practically  only  exchanged  one 
form  of  serfage  for  another.  For  three  years  there  had 
been  bad  harvests  throughout  Russia,  and  the  taxes  and 
responsibilities  imposed  upon  them  by  their  new  condition 
filled  them  with  discontent.  The  army,  and  all  those  who 
had  lost  friends  in  the  Turkish  war,  were  beyond  measure 
outraged  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  They  had  thought  their 
emperor  was  too  moderate  in  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano ; 
but  when  that  treaty  was  set  aside,  and  Armenian  Christians 
in  the  East,  and  Macedonian  Christians  south  of  the  Balkans 
were  delivered  over  again  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Mos- 
lems, their  wrath  fell  upon  the  czar  who  had  consented  to 
such  sacrifices.  The  Pan-Slavists  who  hoped  that  the  result 
of  the  war  would  have  been  a  Slavonic  federation,  found 
themselves  further  than  ever  from  the  realization  of  their 
dream,  since  the  new  kingdoms  and  principalities  torn  from 
the  Turkish  Empire  were  given  over  to  German  rulers, 
supposed  to  be  inimical  to  Russia ;  then,  too,  the  crop  of 
young  men  and  women  educated  in  the  new  schools  and 
colleges  founded  by  Alexander,  without  sufficient  precaution 
as  to  the  moral  qualifications  of  the  professors,  had  just 
come  upon  the  scene,  boiling  over  with  excitement  and 
revolutionary  fervor,  eager  to  be  doing  something,  and 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF   ALEXANDER  //.  267 

furious  at  finding  all  outlets  for  their  activity  closed. 
Besides  this,  the  foreign  newspapers  never  ceased  their 
attacks  upon  Alexander.  They  said  he  was  past  work. 
They  opened  their  columns  even  to  Nihilistic  writers.  The 
old  Emperor  William  remained  faithfully  attached  to  his 
nephew,  but  Prince  Bismarck  fully  recognized  the  strong 
anti-German  feeling  in  the  Russian  Empire,  and  did  not 
scruple  "  in  ways  that  were  dark  "  to  take  revenge  upon  the 
Russians  and  their  czar. 

Alexander  himself  felt  painfully  the  incompleteness  of  his 
work,  and  his  own  inability  to  deal  with  forces  that  were  too 
strong  for  hrm.  In  a  speech  made  in  1879  he  said  :  "  We 
have  great  tasks  yet  before  us.  Those  to  be  attended  to  at 
once  are  the  reduction  of  our  expenses ;  the  regulation  of 
our  currency;  further  reorganization  of  our  army;  and 
improvement  of  the  sanitary  condition's  of  our  country. 
There  is  more  to  be  done,  which  must  wait  till  the  existing 
passions  are  appeased.  If  I  must  die  before  such  reforms 
are  accomplished  I  trust  they  will  be  carried  out  by  my 
successor." 

During  these  latter  years  of  his  life  the  emperor's  unhap- 
piness  was  aggravated  by  the  condition  of  his  wife,  who  was 
dying  slowly  of  consumption,  and  whose  sufferings  from 
apprehension  for  the  safety  of  those  she  loved  were  intense. 
To  no  one  in  Russia  had  the  insufficient  success  of  a  war 
into  which  she  had  put  all  her  heart,  and  a  great  portion  of 
her  means,  on  behalf  of  oppressed  Christians,  been  more 
full  of  disappointment. 

Alexander  had  not  been  a  faithful  husband,  —  but  he 
endeavored  to  make  up  to  his  wife  for  his  liaison  with  the 
Princess  Dolgorouka,  by  whom  he  had  three  children,  by 
devoted  personal  attention  during  her  illness,  and  by  his 
tender  solicitude. 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  motto  of  true  Nihilism  is 
that  "  whatever  is,  is  wrong ;  "  and  must  also  remember  that 
the  political  exiles  in  Siberia  are  very  far  from  being  all 
Nihilists.  The  Russian  police,  in  chronic  dread  of  Nihilism 


268     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

and  its  plots,  lays  hands  ignorantly  and  indiscriminately  on 
any  man  suspected  of  liberal  opinions ;  and  when  arrested 
he  has  no  redress,  because,  unless  accused  of  a  crime  he 
has  no  trial,  but  is  sent  off  to  Siberia  as  a  precautionary 
measure,  by  what  is  called  "  administrative  process,"  lest 
his  opinions  should  "  take  root  downward  and  bear  fruit 
upward "  in  some  dangerous  way. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Nihilists  outside  of  Russia  were 
in  Geneva.  Their  leaders  sat  there  like  spiders  in  the 
centre  of  a  web. 

In  February,  1879,  when  the  Nihilists,  exasperated  by  the 
results  of  the  Turkish  War,  had  worked  themselves  into 
frenzy,  Prince  Krapotkin,1  governor-general  of  Kharkoff,  was 
assassinated  by  a  Nihilist  agent,  a  Jew  named  Goldenburg, 
who,  after  dogging  him  for  some  days,  fired  at  night  into 
his  carriage  window,  and  escaped  arrest  in  the  darkness. 

In  April  a  young  Nihilist,  Solovieff,  fired  at  the  emperor. 
Goldenburg  had  solicited  the  post,  but  was  rejected  by  the 
Nihilist  Central  Committee  on  the  ground  that  the  czar's 
murderer  must  be  an  orthodox  Russian.  The  attempt  was 
made  on  Easter  Monday,  April  14,  a  day  considered  fatal 
to  rulers  by  the  Nihilists,  because  on  that  day  of  the  month 
John  Wilkes  Booth  had  succeeded  in  assassinating  President 
Lincoln. 

In  June,  1879,  the  Nihilists  held  a  convention  and 
resolved  to  use  dynamite,  to  destroy  the  governors-general 
of  Odessa,  Kieff,  and  St.  Petersburg,  and  to  leave  no  means 
unemployed  to  kill  the  czar  and  his  heir-apparent.  In  1878 
they  had  succeeded  in  killing  General  Menzenzel,  chief  of 
police,  and  Baron  Heykin  of  Kieff.  The  successors  of 
General  Menzenzel  —  Drenteln  and  Trepoff — barely  escaped 
death,  and  the  latter  was  severely  wounded.  To  become 
one  of  the  czar's  ministers  in  those  years  was  as  dangerous 
as  leading  a  forlorn  hope. 

The  first  result  of  the  agreement  to  use  dynamite,  and  of 

1  Brother  of  Prince  Krapotkin,  Nihilist  and  exile,  author  of  much 
magazine  literature. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  II.  269 

the  plans  fixed  upon  for  introducing  it  into  Russia,  was 
the  mining  of  three  railroads,  beneath  which  dynamite  was 
placed  for  the  purpose  of  blowing  up  the  czar  and  those 
about  his  person.  One  mine,  however,  proved  useless,  the 
emperor  having  changed  his  route  at  the  last  moment ;  one 
failed  to  explode,  probably  from  want  of  skill  in  its  man- 
agement ;  but  the  history  of  the  third  mine,  which  exploded, 
and  killed  or  wounded  very  many  persons,  though  not  the 
czar,  is  worth  relating. 

A  house  on  the  railroad  not  very  far  from  Moscow  had 
been  purchased  by  one  of  the  conspirators.  He  took  pos- 
session of  it  with  several  other  men,  and  two  women ; 
others  were  lodged  in  the  nearest  town,  and  came  sometimes 
to  visit  their  friends.  Without  tools,  except  two  shovels  and 
a  grocer's  scoop,  they  proceeded  to  mine  from  the  house 
under  the  railroad,  placing  boards,  tent-fashion,  as  they 
went  along.  On  reaching  the  railroad  track  they  bored 
holes  upward  with  a  large  auger  and  inserted  iron  pipes, 
which  communicated  with  dynamite  stored  below.  Their 
greatest  difficulty  was  how  to  dispose  of  the  earth  they  dug 
out  of  the  mine.  At  first  it  was  spread  out  smoothly  and 
trodden  down  in  their  yard  ;  then  they  began  to  fill  the 
cellar  with  it,  and  finally  the  larder.  They  were  greatly 
embarrassed  on  one  occasion  by  the  persistency  of  the  wife 
of  the  former  owner  of  the  house,  who  insisted  on  going 
into  the  larder  in  search  of  some  pots  of  preserve  she  had 
left  behind. 

When  the  day  and  hour  of  the  emperor's  journey  were 
announced,  Sophia  Perovskya,  the  most  enthusiastic  of  the 
women,  was  appointed  to  stand  on  the  track,  and  give  the 
signal  by  waving  her  handkerchief.  The  imperial  train  was 
always  preceded  by  a  pilot  train  to  see  that  the  track  was 
clear,  to  avoid  accidents.  This  train  passed  safely ;  and  in 
it  was  the  emperor.  The  other  train  was  wrecked  when,  as 
had  been  expected,  it  pulled  up  at  a  water-station. 

Some  of  the  conspirators  were  arrested;  but  the  chief 
man  among  them,  a  German  called  Hartmann,  escaped. 


2/O    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

He  had  Nihilist  friends  all  along  his  route,  pledged  to  assist 
a  brother  Nihilist.  Had  he  been  an  ordinary  thief,  he 
could  not  have  evaded  the  police  ;  but  at  every  stage  hands 
were  held  out  to  help  him;  disguises  were  provided  for 
him,  and  he  was  passed  from  one  Nihilist  agent  to  another. 
Sometimes  he  travelled  on  foot;  sometimes  in  peasants' 
carts  with  ox-teams ;  while  those  who  were  hunting  for 
him  were  systematically  put  off  his  track.  He  passed  the 
frontier  of  Russia  without  difficulty,  reached  Berlin,  and 
telegraphed  to  his  fellow-conspirators  at  Geneva,  who  at 
once  set  about  hatching  another  and,  unhappily,  a  more 
successful  plot.  Before,  however,  this  was  executed,  there 
were  intermediate  horrors. 

On  Feb.  5,  1880,  the  czar  was  to  entertain  at  dinner 
Prince  Alexander  of  Hesse  in  the  Winter  Palace,  where  the 
czarina  (the  prince's  sister)  was  lying  very  ill,  —  almost  at 
the  point  of  death. 

Prince  Alexander  ought  to  have  been  punctual ;  but  for 
some  reason  he  was  late.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  delay, 
the  whole  imperial  party  would  have  been  blown  up  at  their 
dinner-table.  While  they  were  proceeding  to  the  dining- 
room  along  a  corridor,  a  tremendous  explosion  took  place. 
Officials  rushed  wildly  about  the  lower  story  of  the  palace 
under  the  impression  that  the  heating  apparatus,  or  the  gas, 
had  blown  up.  The  alarm  bell  of  the  corps  de  garde  rang 
frantically ;  and  above  the  confusion  rose  the  shrieks  of  the 
dying  and  the  wounded,  who  struggled  from  beneath  the 
debris  of  the  demolished  guard-room.  There  were  in  all 
sixty-seven  victims. 

In  the  midst  of  the  confusion  one  of  four  carpenters  who 
had  been  employed  for  four  months  in  the  Winter  Palace 
was  found  to  be  missing.  Dynamite  had  been  stored  in  a 
tool-chest  in  his  room.  He  was  a  Nihilist  leader,  who  had 
feigned  himself  a  workingman.  He  was  never  found  after 
that  day ;  and,  for  aught  we  know,  he  may  be  living  in 
America. 

Two  days  later  the  body  of  a  policeman  was  found  on 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  II.  2/1 

the  ice  of  the  frozen  Neva,  pierced  with  many  wounds. 
Pinned  to  his  breast  was  a  paper  denouncing  death 
to  every  governor-general,  except  Loris  Melikoff,  who 
had  succeeded  the  murdered  Krapotkin  as  governor  at 
Kharkoff. 

It  was  to  Loris  Melikoff  that  in  that  terrible  hour  of  dis- 
tress Alexander  II.  turned. 

Loris  Melikoff  was  born  of  a  noble  Armenian  family  in 
the  Caucasus ;  and  his  appearance  showed  his  Oriental 
origin.  His  complexion  and  his  glance  were  Asiatic ;  his 
expression  of  quick  intelligence  was  European.  Nubar 
Pasha,  the  great  Egyptian  statesman,  had  the  same  origin. 

Loris  entered  the  Russian  military  service  young,  and  until 
he  became  a  major-general,  in  1856,  his  career  had  been 
wholly  provincial.  In  1877  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  Russian  army  in  Asia,  and  distinguished  himself  greatly 
in  the  taking  of  Kars,  which  had  been  brilliantly  defended 
by  the  Turks  under  English  officers.  In  the  spring  of  1878 
he  made  his  first  appearance  at  St.  Petersburg.  He  had 
lived  principally  with  books  ;  but  the  charm  of  his  conversa- 
tion was  irresistible.  All  felt  that  there  was  something  dif- 
ferent in  him  from  the  ordinary  courtier,  —  different  from 
the  usual  type  of  a  military  man.  After  he  had  been  a  few 
months  in  St.  Petersburg,  the  plague  broke  out  in  a  remote 
part  of  the  Russian  dominions.  He  was  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  the  province.  He  hastened  to  his  post,  and 
applied  vigorous  sanitary  measures ;  the  plague  disappeared, 
and  he  became  the  idol  of  the  people.  On  his  return  to 
St.  Petersburg,  in  April,  1879,  he  found  the  city  in  the 
greatest  excitement.  Solovieff  had  just  fired  five  ineffectual 
pistol-shots  at  the  emperor ;  martial  law  was  proclaimed  in 
the  chief  cities  ;  and  Melikoff  was  sent  to  Kharkoff,  —  a  very 
hot-bed  of  Nihilism. 

In  a  few  weeks  he  was  the  most  popular  man  in  all  Rus- 
sia. Every  one  contrasted  his  methods  of  government  with 
those  of  other  governors.  The  true  liberal  party  began  to 
think  of  him  as  its  leader.  He  was  stern  to  genuine  Nihil- 


2/2     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

ists,  but  on  him  were  fixed  the  eyes  of  true  reformers ; 
and  when,  after  the  explosion  in  the  Winter  Palace,  in 
1880,  the  government  knew  not  what  to  do,  Alexander 
called  around  him  all  his  governor- generals,  and  offered  to 
abdicate,  if  they  thought  his  abdication  could  in  any  way 
restore  peace  and  order  to  the  empire,  —  a  resolution  was 
taken  to  make  Loris  Melikoff  for  six  months  dictator  of 
Russia.  He  was  not  dictator  in  name;  but  he  had  a 
dictator's  powers. 

The  empress  died  June  i,  1880,  and  was  buried  with  the 
usual  funeral  ceremonies,  which  in  the  case  of  a  member  of 
the  imperial  family  are  of  great  pomp  and  long  duration. 
It  is  said  that  preparations  had  been  made  to  blow  up  the 
bridge  over  the  Neva,  as  the  hearse  passed  over  it,  followed 
by  the  emperor  and  all  his  sons  on  horseback ;  but  that  a 
storm  and  freshet,  which  caused  the  waters  of  the  river  to 
rise,  drowned  out  the  preparations. 

Not  long  after  the  death  of  the  empress  Alexander  was  mor- 
ganatically  married  to  the  Princess  Dolgorouka,  the  witnesses 
present  being  the  czarevitch,  the  Grand  Duke  Michael,  and 
the  emperor's  trusted  friend,  Count  Adlerberg. 

In  the  last  speech  made  in  public  by  the  Emperor  Alex- 
ander he  said  that  "  he  was  greatly  occupied  with  plans 
of  reform :  that  he  desired  to  abolish  the  poll-tax,  first 
instituted  by  Peter  the  Great ;  to  perfect  a  better  system 
of  allotments,  which  would  benefit  the  peasantry ;  to  make 
the  examinations  less  severe  for  military  or  civil  service,  — 
believing  as  he  did  that  many  who  had  failed  were  driven 
by  disappointment  into  the  ranks  of  his  enemies ;  to  make 
the  railroads  less  expensive  to  the  State  ;  and  to  abolish  the 
heavy  imposts  laid  on  the  estates  of  Polish  nobles  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  insurrection  of  1863." 

The  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  Alexander's  emancipation 
proclamation  was  at  hand.  The  day  had  been  dreaded  as 
one  on  which  there  would  probably  be  an  outbreak  of  Nihil- 
ists ;  but  it  passed  off  quietly.  The  appointment  of  Loris 
Melikoff,  —  the  forlorn  hope  of  utter  helplessness  —  was 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  //.  2/3 

apparently  crowned  with  success.  The  minister  of  public 
instruction,  Count  Dimitri  Tolstoi,  obnoxious  for  his  op- 
pressive measures,  had  been  dismissed.  The  Third  Section 
(in  other  words,  the  Russian  star-chamber)  was  abolished ; 
the  hated  tax  on  salt  was  given  up ;  restrictions  on  the  free- 
dom of  the  press  were  removed.  To  use  the  words  of  a 
Russian,  "  A  regenerating  breath  seemed  to  pass  over  the 
land,  and  to  bring  back  the  air  of  life  to  the  lungs  of  pant- 
ing millions." 

Finally,  in  February,  1881,  when  the  rule  of  Loris  Meli- 
koff  had  lasted  a  year  (for  at  the  end  of  his  dictatorship  he 
continued  to  govern  as  minister  of  the  interior),  it  was 
rumored  that  the  czar  was  about  to  grant  a  constitution. 

That  document  was  the  summoning  of  a  species  of  States 
General,  deputies  to  which  were  to  be  elected  from  the 
Zemstovos,  or  Provincial  Councils,  and  to  offer  their  advice 
to  their  sovereign.  They  were  not  to  have  the  same  func- 
tions as  our  Congress  or  those  of  the  Reichtag  or  the  English 
Parliament,  which  hold  power  by  control  over  the  finances, 
but  it  was  an  immense  step  in  advance  to  associate  the 
Russian  people  in  any  way  with  their  general  government. 

The  paper  was  signed  on  March  1 2  (according  to  our 
calendar)  the  czar  making  over  it  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and 
remarking  to  Melikoff  as  he  did  so  that  it  seemed  to  him 
like  the  calling  of  the  States  General  by  Louis  XVI. 

The  paper  lay  on  his  desk  ready  to  be  sent  to  his  coun- 
cil the  next  day,  but  it  was  never  sent ;  the  hand  of  Fate 
was  on  Alexander.  Ever  since  power  had  been  conferred 
on  Melikoff  his  sovereign  had  objected  to  the  harassing  pre- 
cautions taken  to  ensure  the  safety  of  his  person.  He  per- 
sisted in  taking  his  daily  walk  upon  the  Quai.  He  would 
drive  in  a  drosky  with  his  coachman  and  one  Cossack  in 
the  streets  of  St.  Petersburg.  He  refused  to  be  attended, 
as  several  of  his  ministers  were,  by  a  guard  of  Cossacks, 
saying :  "  Only  Providence  can  protect  me,  and  when  God 
no  longer  sees  fit  to  do  so,  these  Cossacks  cannot  possibly 
help  me." 


274     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

On  the  morning  of  March  1 2  Melikoff  came  to  tell  him 
that  a  man  connected  with  the  explosion  on  the  Moscow 
railroad  had  been  arrested,  in  whose  possession  were 
found  plans  for  a  new  plot,  and  entreated  him  not  to  expose 
himself. 

But  on  Monday,  March  13  (or  March  i,  according  to  the 
old  style  used  in  Russia)  the  emperor  went  early  to  mass ; 
then  with  his  brother  he  reviewed  his  household  troops,  and 
an  hour  after  he  was  brought  back  to  his  palace  torn  in 
pieces,  and  bathed  in  blood. 

I  said  that  Hartmann,  when  he  made  his  escape  the  year 
after  his  attempt  to  kill  the  czar  and  all  about  him  on  a 
railroad,  reached  Berlin,  and  telegraphed  to  Geneva.  He 
telegraphed  also  to  a  young  Russian  student  named  Trigoni 
to  meet  him  in  Paris.  This  man,  after  due  instructions 
from  Hartmann,  was  sent  back  to  St.  Petersburg.  We  have 
no  means  of  knowing  what  he  did  there,  but  he  was  arrested 
by  the  police  a  few  days  before  the  fatal  morning  when 
Alexander  was  assassinated.  It  was  this  arrest  that  induced 
Melikoff  to  implore  his  master  not  to  go  to  the  review  upon 
that  fatal  morning ;  but  the  danger  seemed  very  vague,  and 
the  emperor  would  not  be  deterred. 

Geneva  in  1879  was  full  of  Nihilists,  all  in  a  state  of  great 
excitement  and  activity ;  and  there  were  plenty  of  Russian 
spies  watching  them.1  About  the  time  when  Melikoff  came 
to  the  head  of  affairs  Hartmann,  on  demand  of  the  Russian 
government,  was  expelled  from  France,  and  disappeared, 
going  no  one  knew  whither  ;  but  it  was  conjectured  that  he 
had  gone  back  to  Russia,  where  rumors  of  a  new  plot  were 
beginning  to  be  rife.  In  consequence  of  these  rumors  the 
chief  of  police  under  Melikoff  withdrew  the  spies  of  his 
predecessor  from  Geneva,  and  concentrated  them  on  home 
service,  leaving  the  Nihilists  in  Geneva  unwatched  to  work 
their  will. 

It  was  proposed  by  some  among  them  that   the   czar 

1  This  account  is  principally  from  an  article  in  the  "  Gentleman's 
Magazine,"  1888,  by  J.  E.  Muddock. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  II.          2/5 

should  be  poisoned.  By  all  it  was  agreed  that  his  son 
must  perish  with  him.  In  the  event  of  this  double  murder 
being  successful,  a  rising  was  to  take  place  simultaneously 
in  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg;  barricades  were  to  be 
raised,  the  palaces  seized,  and  a  new  government  in  the 
name  of  the  people  was  to  proceed  to  make  a  constitution. 

It  is  hard  to  know  what  is  meant  in  Russia  by  "  the  peo- 
ple,"—  the  small  middle  or  professional  class,  it  is  to  be 
supposed,  recruited  by  disappointed  young  men  who  are 
younger  members  of  the  old  nobility.  It  can  hardly  include 
the  lately  emancipated  peasants,  the  army,  or  the  enormous 
staff  of  office-holders  under  the  government.  It  was  from 
the  middle,  or  literary  and  professional  class,  that  the  Nihilist 
ranks  were  chiefly  recruited  ;  also  from  the  various  univer- 
sities, where  highly  "liberal  ideas"  were  considered  "good 
form,"  and  a  "little"  knowledge  of  political  economy, 
without  balance,  proved  a  "dangerous  thing"  to  its  pos- 
sessors. We  may  add  to  this  what  is  known  to  all  those 
who  have  lived  under  the  repressive  tyranny  of  a  local 
police,  that  the  very  fact  of  being  forced  to  be  secret  stimu- 
lates the  desire  for  conspiracy. 

It  is  not  that  the  fundamental  ideas  of  Russian  revolu- 
tionists are  wrong.  They  are  the  ideas  that  govern  our 
own  country,  and  all  the  countries  of  western  Europe  ;  but 
the  ideas  of  liberty,  equality,  civil  rights,  universal  suffrage, 
and  the  rest,  must  have  a  foundation  of  experience  in  self- 
government  to  rest  upon.  If  they  have  not  there  must  be 
a  counterbalancing  power  somewhere  in  the  State  to  keep 
things  steady.  The  working  of  self-government  in  Russian 
village  communities  does  not  encourage  us  to  place  much 
reliance  on  the  present  fitness  of  the  nation  for  experiments 
of  the  same  kind  on  a  larger  scale.  The  Russian  peasant, 
like  the  Russian  soldier,  seems  only  to  desire  to  be  kindly, 
sympathetically,  and  wisely  governed.  A  few  thousand 
Skobeleffs  in  civil  life  might  solve  all  difficulties. 

Among  the  leading  Nihilists  were  women  of  rank  and  cul- 
tivation. A  woman  who  once  passes  the  barriers  that 


2/6    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

restrain  her  sex  is  apt  to  stop  at  nothing.  She  will  go 
straight  on  to  her  end,  no  matter  what  she  destroys,  nor 
how  high  may  be  the  obstruction  that  she  has  to  leap  over. 
Her  very  highest  qualities  may  be  enlisted  in  the  cause  of 
evil,  —  self-devotedness,  energy,  perseverance,  and  even 
tender-heartedness,  though  one-sided.  Such  a  woman  was 
Sophia  Leooffa  Perovskya.  She  was  in  1880  about  twenty- 
five  years  of  age.  She  had  been  well  educated,  she  was 
handsome,  winsome,  and  fascinating.  By  birth  she  was 
noble,  and  her  father  had  been  many  years  governor  of 
St.  Petersburg.  Unhappily,  during  her  babyhood  he  had 
cast  off  his  wife  and  banished  her  to  Switzerland,  leaving 
their  daughter  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  her  mother's 
being  alive.  Sophia  when  she  learned  all  this  burned  to 
revenge  herself  upon  her  father  for  what  she  considered  his 
brutality,  and  on  the  government,  of  which,  in  her  eyes,  he 
was  the  representative.  She  entered  into  various  Nihilist 
plots,  one  of  her  objects  being  to  bring  disgrace  upon  her 
father.1  Her  beauty  and  her  high  connections  gave  her 
great  power.  She  could  go  where  meaner  plotters  could 
not  tread,  and  men  of  rank  and  position  about  the  court 
fell  victims  to  her  fascinations.  She  possessed  a  wonderful 
power  of  drawing  men  on  to  reveal  to  her  their  secrets,  and 
in  this  way  she  was  able  to  learn  all  the  movements  of  the 
court,  and  all  the  precautions  taken  by  the  police  to  secure 
the  czar's  safety.  To  obtain  this  information,  that  she 
might  impart  it  to  her  fellow  conspirators,  was  the  object  of 
her  existence.  To  effect  her  purpose  she  felt  no  scruple  in 
leading  the  life  of  a  woman  of  lost  character.  After  break- 
ing from  her  father  she  had  at  one  time  joined  her  mother 
in  Geneva,  and  there  associated  with  the  leading  Nihilists. 

The  poisoning  plan  did  not  find  favor  with  the  Revolu- 
tionary Executive  Committee.  They  said  that  the  death  of 
the  czar  was  to  produce  what  they  called  "  a  great  moral 
effect ; "  and  that  that  moral  effect  would  be  lost  by  vulgar  poi- 
soning, —  indeed  that  the  matter  would  be  hushed  up,  and 

1  Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  September,  1891. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  II. 

that  the  Nihilists  would  not  get  the  credit  for  it  that  they 
deserved.  "  Their  idea  was  to  startle  the  world  with  the 
performance  of  a  tragic  drama,  that  should  have  a  vast  mul- 
titude for  audience,  so  that  there  should  be  thousands  of 
living  witnesses  that  Nihilism  was  irresistible." 

A  student  in  the  School  of  Chemistry  in  St.  Petersburg 
sent  to  the  Nihilist  committee  in  Paris  a  recipe  for  a  very 
formidable  compound  for  rilling  bombs.  He  stated  that  two 
drachms  of  the  devilish  agent  being  exploded  would  kill 
every  living  thing  within  twelve  yards. 

What  became  of  this  inventor  is  not  known.  He  is 
thought  to  have  drowned  himself  in  the  Neva.  An  ex- 
divinity  student  in  St.  Petersburg  constructed  the  bombs. 
The  explosive  matter  to  fill  them  was  made  up  in  France. 
Every  precaution  was  taken.  Every  chance  on  either  side 
was  calculated  beforehand.  To  make  assurance  doubly 
sure,  a  cheesemonger's  shop  was  opened  on  a  street  lead- 
ing to  the  palace,  and  a  mine  was  constructed  from  it  under 
the  roadway;  while  the  bombs  were  to  be  thrown  at  the 
emperor  if  he  drove  home  along  another  street  leading 
from  the  Catherine  Canal. 

The  mine  was  very  carefully  prepared.  It  was  filled  with 
dynamite,  and  had  it  been  fired,  it  would  have  wrought 
terrible  destruction  as  well  as  have  blown  up  the  czar. 

Sophia  Perovskya  was  not  the  only  woman  concerned  in 
the  conspiracy ;  there  was  a  Jewish  girl  named  Hesse  Helf- 
man.  Hesse  was  openly  the  mistress  of  one  of  the  con- 
spirators. Sophia's  derelictions,  which  she  used  to  promote 
her  political  purposes,  were  not  so  well-known.  The  police 
obtained  some  information  which,  on  the  loth  or  nth  of 
March,  caused  them  to  attempt  the  arrest  of  Hesse  Helf- 
man's  lover,  who  at  once  shot  himself;  but  a  great  deal 
of  information  was  found  in  the  girl's  house  ;  and  this  caused 
Loris  Melikoff,  as  I  have  said,  to  remonstrate  earnestly  with 
the  emperor  about  exposing  himself.  It  does  not,  however, 
seem  to  have  moved  the  police  to  take  especial  precautions 
for  his  safety. 


2/8       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX^H  CENTURY. 

It  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  the  world  and  the  police 
how  the  materials  used  in  the  manufacture  of  the  new  ex- 
plosive were  brought  from  Paris  into  Russia.  Even  the  tea 
that  came  over  the  eastern  frontier  on  the  backs  of  camels 
had  for  the  past  year  or  two  been  carefully  searched ;  fur- 
niture and  carriages  imported  from  western  Europe  were 
often  rendered  worthless  by  being  pulled  to  pieces  by 
the  police  to  examine  their  stuffing.  All  travellers  were 
minutely  searched,  and  women  were  required  to  take  off  all 
their  clothes,  often  in  the  presence  of  gendarmes.  Any- 
one coming  by  sea  or  railroad  to  St.  Petersburg  could  not 
engage  a  cab  to  take  him  to  his  house  or  a  hotel  without  per- 
mission of  the  police ;  and  yet  the  very  thing  to  exclude 
which  all  these  precautions  were  daily  taken  was  brought 
into  the  country. 

It  is  supposed  that  an  old  Jew  carried  it  from  Paris  to 
Geneva  in  a  leather  travelling  case  ;  and  that  a  woman  trans- 
ported it  thence  to  Frankfort,  whence  it  was  despatched  by 
various  ways  and  in  small  quantities  to  St.  Petersburg. 

As  the  day  for  the  regicide  approached,  the  conspirators 
worked  incessantly.  The  bombs  were  ingeniously  con- 
structed. The  explosive  compound  looked  like  golden 
syrup,  and  was  sweet  to  taste.  If  a  drop  or  two  fell  on  a 
hot  stove  they  produced  instantaneously  a  brilliant  sheet  of 
flame ;  but  it  made  no  smell  and  no  noise. 

Sophia  Perovskya  meantime  kept  the  chief  plotters  well 
informed,  and  was  soon  able  to  announce  that  on  March  13 
the  emperor  was  going  with  his  brother,  the  Grand  Duke 
Michael,  to  inspect  his  body-guard.  It  was  then  decided 
to  destroy  him  as  he  drove  back  to  the  Winter  Palace.  The 
attempt  was  probably  hastened  lest  the  discoveries  made 
by  the  police  at  the  house  of  Hesse  Helfman  should  frus- 
trate the  conspiracy.  The  first  design  had  been  to  select 
some  occasion  on  which  the  emperor  and  the  czarevitch 
would  be  together. 

Sophia  had  a  lover  high  at  court;  and  from  him  she 
probably  obtained  all  the  desired  information.  She  did  not 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  //.         2 79 

know,  however,  which  route  the  emperor  would  take.  If 
that  by  the  Sadoveya  (one  of  the  principal  streets  of  St. 
Petersburg),  he  would  pass  over  the  mine,  which  would  then 
be  exploded  ;  if  he  went  by  the  Catherine  Canal,  the  bombs 
were  to  be  thrown  at  him. 

Everything  was  ready.  Sophia  drew  plans  to  assist  the 
bomb-throwers,  and  volunteered  to  signal  the  approach  of 
the  emperor's  carriage.  She  had  two  men  under  her  espe- 
cial orders,  —  Resikoff  and  Elnikoff,  the  latter  a  young  man 
completely  fascinated  by  her  beauty. 

Resikoff  threw  the  first  bomb.  It  exploded  with  a 
tremendous  report,  slightly  wounding  the  horses  of  the 
emperor's  carriage,  and  killing  on  the  spot  a  baker's  boy 
and  the  Cossack  footman.  The  coachman  was  unhurt,  and 
he  implored  the  czar  not  to  get  out  of  the  carriage,  but  to 
let  him  drive  him  swiftly  out  of  the  gathering  crowd.  But 
Alexander  had  seen  that  somebody  was  hurt,  and  insisted 
on  getting  out  that  he  might  give  assistance.  As  he  set  foot 
on  the  pavement,  Elnikoff  flung  his  bomb  at  him.  It  ex- 
ploded at  the  czar's  feet ;  but  though  the  explosion  was 
tremendous,  and  men,  standing  many  yards  away,  were 
thrown  down  by  it,  only  two  men  were  killed,  —  the 
emperor  and  Elnikoff.  The  latter  died  almost  immediately ; 
the  emperor  lingered  some  hours  in  frightful  pain.  His 
lower  limbs,  and  the  lower  part  of  his  body,  had  been 
blown  to  pieces. 

There  were  eight  men  and  two  women  concerned  in  the 
execution  of  this  plot.  Of  these,  one  shot  himself;  one  was 
killed  by  the  explosion  ;  two,  who  were  brothers,  made  their 
escape  ;  and  four,  together  with  the  women,  were  sentenced 
to  execution. 

Men  intimate  with  Sophia,  from  whom  she  had  extracted 
information,  were  greatly  alarmed  lest  she  should  betray 
them.  She,  however,  held  her  peace.  Owing  to  her  rank, 
the  young  Czar  Alexander  III.  had  himself  to  sign  her 
death-warrant.  This  he  was  very  reluctant  to  do ;  and  she 
would  possibly  have  been  spared  had  it  not  been  for  the 


28O     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

earnest  representations  of  courtiers,  who  feared  that  their 
indiscreet  revelations  to  her  might  be  brought  to  light. 
Hesse  Helfman  was  not  executed ;  but  Sophia  Perovskya 
was  hanged  with  the  four  men  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd, 
who  seemed  to  think  that  hanging  was  "  too  good  for 
them." 

The  rising  that  was  to  have  taken  place  immediately  on 
the  czar's  death  failed  to  be  accomplished.  The  Nihilists 
made  nothing  by  their  crime.  The  czar  was  no  sooner 
dead  than  the  cry  was  raised  :  "  Long  live  the  czar  !  " 
and  "  the  dropped  crown  of  Alexander  II.  was  immediately 
taken  up  by  Alexander  III." 

For  some  time  Nihilism  was  scotched,  but  not  killed. 
It  revived  again,  however,  and  holds  the  sword  of  Damocles 
over  the  emperor's  head.  His  nerves,  it  is  said,  have  been 
greatly  shaken  by  the  continual  apprehension  in  which  he 
lives;  but  he  is  happy  in  the  deep  devotion  of  his  wife, 
Princess  Dagmar  of  Denmark  (in  Russia  the  Empress 
Maria  Feodorovna) ,  and  occasionally,  while  visiting  enfamille 
her  parents,  the  good  Danish  king  and  queen,  he  can  throw 
off  the  terrible  cares  that  oppress  him. 

The  plan  for  a  species  of  constitution  to  be  given  to 
Russia  fell  to  the  ground.  Prince  Ignatieff,  who  had 
returned  from  his  embassy  to  Constantinople,  and  was  high 
in  the  young  czar's  favor,  and  Katkoff,  the  Russian  journalist, 
remonstrated  earnestly  with  the  new  sovereign  against  its 
being  carried  into  effect.  The  Nihilists  had  destroyed  all 
hopes  of  liberal  institutions. 

Loris  Melikoff  felt  that  his  hour  was  past,  and  that  his 
mission  was  over.  He  and  his  colleagues  resigned.  A  few 
days  later  he  set  out  for  his  old  home  in  the  Caucasus. 
But  soon  he  felt  himself  ill  at  ease  in  his  retirement, 
and  his  health  gave  way.1  His  malady  was  slow  con- 
sumption. He  went  to  Nice,  where  he  lived  in  strict 
retirement,  keeping  an  attentive  eye  on  the  public  affairs 
of  his  own  country.  He  never  spoke  of  the  past  with 
1  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  ALEXANDER  II.         28  I 

bitterness,  though  he  commented  sometimes  on  the  pres- 
ent with  severity. 

He  died  in  the  winter  of  1888,  aged  sixty- three,  and  is 
buried  at  Nice  in  the  same  cemetery  as  Leon  Gambetta. 
The  time  had  been  when  the  names  of  those  two  men  rang 
loudest  throughout  Europe  ;  now  they  sleep  in  neighboring 
graves,  and  by  the  world  outside  of  Russia  Loris  Melikoff, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his  times,  is  almost 
forgotten. 

The  tragedy  of  1881  taught  the  Russian  authorities  the 
lesson  that  "  eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  safety ;  "  and 
grieved  as  we  may  feel  at  the  sad  stories  of  administrative 
justice  (or  rather  injustice)  to  men  of  cultivated  minds  and 
genuine  patriotism,  we  can  hardly  wonder  at  the  panic  pre- 
cautions of  the  police  department,  when  we  remember  that 
among  the  real  Nihilists  there  are  still  men  and  women  who 
will  stop  at  nothing  that  will  enable  them  —  as  they  call 
it  —  to  regenerate  their  country. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

ALEXANDER    III. 

A  S  I  have  said,  Alexander  III.  in  the  first  hours  after  his 
^*  father's  death  might  possibly  have  carried  out  the  late 
czar's  purposes,  and  have  promulgated  the  ukase  authorizing 
an  advisory  council  chosen  by  the  Zemstvos  (assemblies 
elected  by  the  people).  But  he  was  restrained  by  advice 
from  IgnatierT,  the  diplomatist,  and  Katkoff  the  journalist, 
which  advice  indeed  coincided  with  his  own  feelings  and 
his  most  cherished  opinions.  It  was  no  time  for  further 
concessions  to  the  spirit  of  democracy.  Alexander  II.  had 
tried  what  were  called  reforms,  and  he  lay  a  mangled  corpse 
as  the  result.  The  policy  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  was 
best  for  his  grandson  to  follow.  From  that  moment  the 
desire  and  design  of  Alexander  III.  was  to  counteract  the 
reforms  set  on  foot  by  his  father. 

We  read  in  our  newspapers  upon  one  column  an  account 
of  the  charming  manners,  the  free  enjoyment  of  domestic 
life,  the  kindliness  and  the  courtesy  shown  by  the  present 
emperor  during  one  of  his  visits  to  Denmark ;  on  the  next 
column  we  read  horrible  accounts  of  cruelties  perpetrated 
under  his  orders  against  Lutherans,  Orthodox  Dissenters; 
Polish  Catholics,  and  Jews.  We  are  at  a  loss  to  understand 
the  contradiction.  Yet  both  accounts  are  true.  Alexander 
III.  appears  to  the  world  in  a  double  aspect.  Born  to  be 
simply  the  Grand  Duke  Alexander  Alexandrovitch,  he  was 
a  man  of  somewhat  narrow  intellect,  but  with  fine  moral 
dispositions,  great  tenacity  of  purpose,  strict  honesty  and 
conscientiousness,  and  real  kindness  of  heart,  —  all  which 
qualities  would  have  made  him  in  private  life  a  happy  and 


EMPEROR  ALEXANDER  III. 


ALEXANDER  III.  283 

most  estimable  man.  Fate  made  him  the  autocrat  of  all 
the  Russias,  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  more  than  one  hundred 
millions  of  his  fellow-creatures ;  and  God  having  called  him 
to  this  "  state  of  life,"  he  has  valiantly  and  conscientiously 
taken  up  its  onerous  duties,  and  endeavors  to  fulfil  them 
according  to  his  lights,  in  obedience  to  what  he  conceives 
to  be  the  welfare  of  his  country  and  the  will  of  Heaven.  He 
has  no  personal  ambition,  no  selfish  aims.  He  has  taken  his 
grandfather's  motto  for  his  guidance  :  "  Orthodoxy,  auto- 
cracy, and  nationality."  On  these,  if  Heaven  seconds  his 
wish  that  they  should  be  established  in  Russia,  he  builds 
large  hopes  for  her  influence  and  prosperity.  In  visions  he 
sees  her  in  future  years  all-powerful  in  eastern  Europe,  and 
mistress  of  the  Mediterranean,  dominating  the  world  by  her 
influence,  proving  to  the  perfect  conviction  of  all  men  of 
sense  that  the  Orthodox  Faith,  having  exterminated  all  dis- 
sent, all  atheism,  and  all  Church  rivalries,  is  the  one  and 
only  form  of  Christianity  suited  to  our  race ;  that  autocracy 
is  the  only  government  that  can  repress  the  devilish  aspira- 
tions of  democracy ;  and  that  Slav  civilization  —  or,  as  one 
Russian  writer  triumphantly  expresses  it,  "  Slavonic  bar- 
barism" —  is  meant  to  dominate  the  world. 

Alexander  III.  is  not  a  man  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
He  hates  what  we  call  progress.  French  ideas,  both  social 
and  political,  are  repugnant  to  him.  English  constitutional- 
ism he  believes  will  bring  the  British  Empire  to  ruin ;  Ger- 
man hair-splitting  and  discussion  he  has  no  patience  with. 
His  ideas  are  those  of  sovereigns  and  ecclesiastics  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

In  all  the  ordinary  relations  of  life  no  man  can  sustain  a 
more  estimable  character.  But  while  no  man  is  probably 
strong  enough  to  deal  decisively  with  the  problems  of  Rus- 
sian life  and  government,  if  any  such  man  exists  he  is  not 
the  Emperor  Alexander. 

The  murder  of  Alexander  II. ,  like  that  of  President 
Lincoln  (and  indeed  like  most  other  murders),  was  not 
only  a  crime,  it  was  a  blunder. 


284     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

"  Nothing  has  put  Russia  further  backward,"  says  the  great 
Danish  critic,  George  Brandes,  "than  this  occurrence,  which 
was  pregnant  with  misfortune.  It  immediately  prevented  the 
formation  of  a  sort  of  parliamentary  constitution,  which  had 
just  then  been  promised ;  "it  frightened  the  successor  to  the 
crown  back  from  the  paths  his  father  had  entered  upon  at  the 
beginning  of  his  reign ;  and  it  seemed  to  justify  the  rulers  in 
oppressions  and  persecutions  of  every  kind." 

Ivan  Aksakoff,  the  friend  of  Skobeleff,  also  wrote  thus  at 
the  close  of  the  first  ten  months  of  Alexander  III.'s  reign  : 

"  Misunderstanding  and  mistrust  have  spread  like  a  blight 
over  Russia.  They  have  marred  the  proportion,  form,  and 
color  of  all  the  manifestations  of  our  life.  Between  the  nobility 
and  the  people,  the  government  and  society,  the  educated  and 
the  ignorant,  nay,  even  between  members  of  the  same  classes 
of  society,  exists  distrust  and  harrowing  misunderstanding. 
Everything  is  out  of  joint,  everything  has  lost  its  foundation, 
discontent  is  everywhere." 

Along  with  the  dread  of  new  revolutionary  crimes  arose 
the  fear  of  blind  reaction,  and  the  fear  of  fear.1 

The  Orthodox  Russian  Church  has  added  an  additional 
sacrament  to  those  in  the  early  Church,  or  in  its  Latin 
sister.  To  baptism,  holy  communion,  confirmation,  matri- 
mony, orders,  penance,  and  extreme  unction,  it  has  added 
coronation;  and  the  devout  spirit  of  Alexander  III.  fully 
believed  that  especial  grace  to  govern  would  be  conferred 
upon  him  by  that  ceremony.  It  was  more  than  two  years, 
however,  after  his  father's  death  before  he  braved  the  dangers 
of  being  crowned.  The  ceremony  of  course  was  to  take 
place  at  Moscow  in  the  Kremlin. 

A  kremlin  is,  properly  speaking,  four  high  walls  with 
towers  at  their  corners,  originally  built  up  in  the  centre  of  a 
city,  as  a  place  of  refuge  in  case  of  an  attack  by  marauding 
Tartars.  Many  Russian  cities  have  kremlins,  —  but  the 
kremlin  par  excellence,  the  one  known  to  all  the  world,  is 
the  Kremlin  of  Moscow. 

1  Russia  under  Alexander  III.     1893. 


ALEXANDER  III.  285 

PvAAAftX^ 
Moscow  has  been  called  the  Muscovite  Rome.     It  stands 

on  seven  low  hills.  It  has  been  partially  burnt  down  more 
than  once,  and  as  houses  of  different  styles  of  construction 
rise  after  each  burning,  the  effect  is  extremely  picturesque. 
The  houses  and  roofs  are  of  many  colors;  on  gala  days 
brilliant  carpets  and  tapestries  are  hung  from  the  windows. 

May  22,  1883,  was  the  day  appointed  for  the  public 
entrance  of  the  imperial  family  into  the  Kremlin,  where 
etiquette  prescribed  that  they  should  pass  some  days  before 
the  coronation. 

Before  daylight  the  line  along  which  the  procession  was 
to  pass  for  four  miles  was  lined  with  soldiers.  In  order  to 
ensure  the  emperor's  safety  the  police  had  taken  possession 
of  the  back  doors  of  all  the  houses  looking  on  the  route,  and 
in  most  cases  had  nailed  them  up,  that  no  one  in  the  press 
while  the  emperor  was  passing  might  suddenly  rush  out  and 
throw  a  bomb. 

"  The  streets  leading  to  that  which  was  the  line  of  the  proces- 
sion were  barricaded,  and  guarded  by  large  bodies  of  soldiers. 
Only  persons  provided  with  an  especial  passport  ticket,  and  a 
privileged  number  of  chosen  peasants  who  stood  behind  the 
double  line  of  soldiers,  were  allowed  to  remain  on  the  street. 

"  The  procession  started  at  two  P.  M. ;  as  it  did  so,  from  all 
churches  along  the  line  of  march  came  forth  priests  in  robes  of 
cloth  of  gold,  who,  on  altars  erected  in  the  street,  offered  prayers 
for  the  imperial  family,  the  deacons  waving  incense,  and  all  the 
church  bells  (Moscow  is  famous  for  its  church  bells)  ringing 
merrily.  There  had  been  a  rumor  that  no  window  was  to  be 
opened  along  the  line  of  the  procession,  and  no  balcony  occu- 
pied, but  this  proved  untrue.  Probably  it  was  thought  too 
strong  a  measure,  and  one  that  would  too  openly  exhibit  the 
alarm  felt  by  the  authorities. 

"  First  came  the  magnificent  Gardes  a  cheval,  in  new  white 
tunics,  shining  cuirasses,  and  silver  casques,  surmounted  by 
gilded  double-headed  eagles.  This  corps,  the  emperor's  body- 
guard, was  the  one  that  suffered  so  fearfully  six  years  before  in 
crossing  the  Balkans,  when  many  frozen  dead  bodies  were  col- 
lected in  stacks  beside  the  road. 

"Deputations  then   followed  from   many  guilds  and  many 


286      RUSSIA  AND  TURKHY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

towns ;  and  then  a  group  of  colored  men  in  fantastic  dresses, 
styled  Arabs  of  the  household  of  the  empress.  Then  came  two 
bodies  of  imperial  huntsmen,  palace  officials,  equerries,  etc.,  in 
open  phaetons. 

"Midway  in  the  long  stream  was  the  emperor,  wearing  the 
uniform  of  a  Cossack  general,  with  a  Cossack  Astrakhan  cap. 
He  was  mounted  on  a  white  horse.1' 1 

"The  pale  man  on  the  white  horse,"  says  a  writer  in  the 
London  "  Spectator,"  also  present  on  the  occasion,  "  who  as 
his  people  shout  their  devotion,  and  all  the  world  bends  in 
reverence,  feels  chiefly  the  necessity  of  fortitude  to  await 
what  may  meet  him  at  the  next  turning,  rides  on  expecting, 
though  probably  not  fearing,  instant  execution." 

"  The  emperor  rode  a  little  in  advance  of  his  two  sons  and  the 
Duke  of  Edinburgh,  his  brother-in-law.  Behind  them  came  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  princes,  generals,  and  aides-de-camp, 
among  them  the  English  general,  Lord  Wolseley,  fresh  from  his 
Egyptian  campaign,  conspicuous  in  his  scarlet  English  uniform. 

"  Then  followed  deputations  from  all  the  tribes  of  Central 
Asia  that  owed  fealty  to  the  czar.  They  rode  splendid  Turco- 
man horses,  and  were  clad  in  every  color  under  heaven,  green, 
the  color  of  the  Prophet,  predominating.  They  had  bright 
eyes,  and  gypsy  features,  and  a  peculiar  nonchalance  of  manner, 
which  seemed  to  say  that,  though  they  rode  in  the  procession, 
they  owed  allegiance  to  no  one.  The  strangest  head-dress  was 
that  of  the  men  of  Khiva,  which  was,  first,  a  very  high  cap  made 
of  brown  sheepskin,  and  on  top  of  that  a  black  and  red  pointed 
hat,  like  the  hat  in  children's  picture-books  of  Goody  Two 
Shoes. 

"  After  the  czar's  procession,  but  at  some  distance,  followed 
the  czarina's.  The  carriages  were  all  glass  and  gilding,  like  the 
fairy  coaches  for  queens  we  dreamed  of  in  our  childhood.  The 
czarina's  carriage  was  drawn  by  eight  perfectly  white  horses  in 
gold  harness,  each  horse  held  by  a  groom  in  blue  velvet,  with  a 
casque  and  white  plumes.  There  sat  the  empress  and  her  little 
daughter  Xenia,  eight  years  old,  who  was  dressed  all  in  white, 
and  sat  up  looking  very  pale  and  astonished  at  the  homage  paid 

1  From  the  "Monthly  Packet,"  December,  1883  —  an  article  by 
Mrs.  Trench,  wife  of  the  military  attache  to  the  English  embassy. 


ALEXANDER  III.  287 

them.  The  empress  was  arrayed  in  imperial  splendor,  and  wore 
the  official  insignia  of  state.  She  was  very  pale.  But  on  her 
bright  and  animated  face  there  was  a  smile  for  every  one  as  she 
bowed  right  and  left.  As  the  procession  approached  the  altars, 
the  priests  held  up  the  cross,  to  which  all  bowed  as  they  drew 
near. 

"  Poor  woman  !  Poor  empress  !  Poor  wife  and  mother !  It 
was  well  known  to  those  behind  the  scenes  that  that  very  morn- 
ing several  anonymous  letters  had  been  received  both  by  the 
emperor  and  empress,  telling  them  to  prepare  for  the  worst  if 
they  persisted  in  going  in  procession  to  the  Kremlin.  Yet  there 
sat  the  empress  with  a  brave  smile  on  her  face,  though  not 
knowing  at  what  moment  some  desperate  attempt  might  be  made 
on  the  lives  of  her  husband  and  her  sons !  Not  only  did  she 
and  the  emperor  receive  such  letters  that  morning,  but  many  of 
the  attendants  who  were  to  form  part  of  the  procession,  and  the 
little  pages  and  postilions  who  accompanied  the  empress's  chariot 
received  separate  letters,  warning  them  that  they  would  never 
reach  the  Kremlin  alive. 

"  About  a  dozen  gold  state  carriages  followed,  filled  with  ladies 
of  the  suite,  and  with  grand  duchesses.  When  the  emperor  had 
entered  the  Kremlin  a  gun  announced  it  to  the  multitude.  Then 
the  line  of  soldiers  broke  up  behind  the  procession,  and  the 
streets  filled  again." 

This  public  entry  into  the  Kremlin  was,  however,  only  pre- 
paratory to  the  coronation.  The  dangers  of  the  imperial 
family  were  by  no  means  over.  Every  few  yards  of  the 
ground  covered  by  the  Kremlin  was  guarded  by  a  policeman 
or  a  soldier. 

The  Kremlin  in  Moscow  is  not,  like  almost  all  the  other 
kremlins,  a  square,  but  a  triangle,  two  miles  in  extent,  and 
surrounded  by  a  handsome  red  wall.  It  has  five  gates ;  over 
each  is  a  shrine,  and  worshippers  are  at  all  times  to  be  seen 
kneeling  before  them  in  the  open  air.  Within  the  Kremlin 
are  cathedrals,  convents,  arsenals,  and  palaces.  In  the 
inner  court  indeed  there  are  three  cathedrals,  none  however 
as  large  as  our  ordinary  city  churches,  but  each  has  five 
golden  domes. 

On  Sunday,  May  27,  1883,  the  actual  coronation  took 
place.  The  Kremlin  was  carpeted  with  red  cloth,  as  it  had 


288     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

been  for  the  coronation  of  Alexander  II.     Four  spaces  we/ 
railed  off  for  spectators.     Two  were  for  soldiers ;  one  for 
peasants ;  and  the  other  for  mechanics,  trades-people,  and 
their  wives.     All  these  had  previously  had  their  characters 
thoroughly  investigated  by  the  police. 

The  Church  of  the  Assumption,  in  which  all  emperors  are 
crowned,  was  one  glitter  of  gold.  In  Russian  churches  there 
are  no  seats  for  worshippers  ;  so  the  corps  diplomatique  and 
their  ladies  had  to  stand  five  hours.  The  procession  of  the 
emperor  was  led  by  the  queen  of  Greece  and  the  young 
czarevitch,  followed  by  the  Grand  Duke  George  and  his 
little  sister,  Xenia.  Then  came  the  emperor,  very  pale,  in 
uniform.  The  choir  sang,  "  Justice  and  mercy  shall  be  the 
strength  of  thy  throne,"  etc.  The  empress  was  very  much 
agitated.  "  I  could  see,"  says  the  lady  whose  account  I 
am  following,  "  that  her  chest  was  heaving  with  emotion ; 
and  she  was  nearly  as  white  as  her  silver  dress.  Her  pal- 
lor was  heightened  by  her  black  hair,  which  was  simply 
dressed,  with  two  long  curls  falling  on  her  shoulders,  with- 
out a  single  ornament." 

The  service  began  by  a  Te  Deum,  exquisitely  sung  by 
more  than  one  hundred  voices,  the  choristers  all  clad  in 
gold  and  purple.  The  czar  received  the  coronation-robe 
from  the  metropolitan  of  Moscow,  who  gave  it  with  the 
words  :  "  Cover  and  protect  thy  people  as  this  robe  covers 
thee." 

The  emperor  crowned  himself.  The  crown  was  brought 
him  on  a  yellow  satin  cushion.  The  archbishop  said  :  "  In 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

"  It  was  with  much  admiration,"  says  Mrs.  Trench,  "  that 
I  watched  the  calm  and  thoughtful  dignity  with  which  the 
emperor  lifted  the  crown  from  the  cushion,  and  held  it  for 
a  few  moments  in  his  hands  as  if  he  must  reflect,  and  then, 
turning  it  round  slowly,  raised  the  massive  pile  of  dia- 
monds to  his  head." 

No  wonder  !     It  was  to  the  emperor  a  solemn  moment. 


ALEXANDER  III.  289 

It  was  to  him  a  sacramental  rite.  Not  only  did  he  believe 
the  crown  conferred  upon  him  heavenly  grace,  but  it  made 
his  person  sacred ;  and  that  sacredness  was  the  source  of  his 
prerogative.  The  czar  is  patriarch  of  the  whole  Russian 
Church  as  well  as  sovereign  of  the  Russian  millions ;  and  in 
his  consecration  a  religious  function  is  performed,  which,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Russian  people,  is  the  most  important  of  all 
rites :  and  as  other  ceremonials  are  slow,  costly,  and  mag- 
nificent, it  must  be  slowest,  costliest,  and  most  magnificent 
of  all. 

When  the  crown  was  on  the  emperor's  head  the  beauti- 
ful diamond  collar  of  the  Order  of  Saint  Andrew  was  put 
on  him  ;  and  when  the  orb  and  sceptre  were  handed  to  him 
he  was  invested  with  all  the  symbols  of  his  sovereignty. 

"  There  was  a  moment's  silence  which  well  suited  the  occa- 
sion ;  for  there  could  not  have  been  any  one  present  whose  heart 
was  not  moved,  or  whose  spirit  did  not  breathe  a  prayer  that 
to  the  monarch  who  had  just  put  on  the  crown  —  the  mighty 
crown  of  diamonds,  yet  a  very  crown  of  lead,  bringing  with  it 
colossal  responsibilities  —  might  be  given  a  double  portion  of 
grace,  wisdom,  and  power,  to  enable  him  to  fulfil  the  duties 
which  his  high  position  demanded  of  him." 

Then  the  emperor  beckoned  to  him  his  wife,  who  ap- 
proaching knelt  down  before  him  on  a  crimson  cushion. 
He  lifted  the  crown  from  his  head,  and  just  for  one  moment 
placed  it  upon  hers.  Her  ladies  then  fastened  on  a  smaller 
crown  of  diamonds.  She  continued  kneeling,  her  head  rest- 
ing in  the  flowing  robe  of  her  husband's  mantle.  When  she 
rose,  it  was  observed  that  she  looked  calmer. 

The  three  imperial  children,  the  czarevitch,  the  Grand 
Duke  George,  and  little  Xenia,  then  pressed  around  their 
father  and  mother  with  congratulations  and  embraces.  After 
them  came  in  turn  the  whole  imperial  family. 

"  Prayers  then  began  again,  — an  exhortation,  and  the  anoint- 
ing, done  with  a  brush  of  gold  and  precious  stones.  The 
emperor  afterward  received  the  Communion  for  the  first  and 


290    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

only  time  as  a  priest,  —  that  is,  the  bread  and  wine  from  the 
paten  and  the  chalice.  In  Russia  the  laity  receive  only  bread 
soaked  in  wine. 

l(  Then  the  procession  quitted  the  Cathedral  of  the  Assump- 
tion to  visit  all  the  other  churches  within  the  Kremlin,  a  magni- 
ficent baldequin  being  held  over  the  emperor  and  empress, 
composed  almost  entirely  of  yellow  feathers  mixed  with  black 
and  white  plumes." 

A  banquet  and  a  reception  followed.  Then  the  emperor 
and  empress  dined  alone  on  a  raised  dais.  After  they  had 
sat  an  hour  at  their  table,  with  nothing  to  eat,  the  viands 
were  brought  in,  which  was  the  signal  for  the  departure  of 
their  guests. 

During  the  evening  magnificent  balls  were  given.  The 
empress  and  the  Russian  ladies  all  wore  the  national  cos- 
tumes of  velvet,  pink  or  blue,  the  bodice  with  a  long  point, 
the  sleeves  very  long  and  wide.  Over  the  head  was  worn  a 
raised  bandeau  of  velvet,  embroidered  with  pearls  and  hid- 
ing the  hair.  To  the  bandeau  is  fastened  a  long  veil.  It 
must  be  something  like  the  head-dress  worn  by  Homeric 
women.  At  the  court  ball  tnere  was  no  dancing,  —  only  a 
procession  with  partners,  called  a  Polonaise. 

A  few  days  after  the  coronation  some  members  of  the 
English  embassy  went  to  the  top  of  a  curious  structure, 
called  Ivan  the  Great's  Tower.  Ivan  the  architect,  not  Ivan, 
who  had  entertained  the  ambassadors  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
It  consists  of  five  stories,  in  each  of  which  bells  are  hung. 
In  the  first  are  about  thirty  bells,  the  number  diminish- 
ing as  they  go  up,  till  in  the  fifth  there  are  only  two  silver 
bells.  From  this  tower  they  looked  down  on  the  imperial 
kitchen,  where  cooks  in  white  caps  were  preparing  dishes, 
while  soldiers  stood  on  guard  around  them  as  a  precaution 
against  poisoning  ! 

The  fetes  closed  with  a  review  of  forty-five  thousand  men 
on  the  Qth  of  June,  1883,  having  lasted  two  weeks  without 
any  contretemps. 

It  is  said  that  the  Nihilists  about  this  time  offered  to  en- 


ALEXANDER  III.  2QI 

gage  not  to  destroy  Alexander  III.  if  he  would  grant  a  con- 
stitution. The  emperor,  however,  refused  to  enter  into  the 
agreement ;  he  had  already  determined  on  his  course,  and 
was  at  once  too  brave,  too  honest,  and  too  obstinate  to  make 
terms  with  his  enemies. 

There  are  in  the  Russian  Cabinet  ten  ministers  and  five 
assistant-ministers.1  These  are  not  servants  of  the  public 
as  are  ministers  in  other  countries ;  they  are  the  czar's  per- 
sonal servants ;  and  their  duty  is  to  carry  out  in  their  de- 
partments his  personal  will.  When  a  law  is  to  be  made, 
custom  and  the  statute  book  require  that  it  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  a  committee  of  ministers ;  if  approved  by  them, 
or  rather  by  a  majority,  it  is  passed  on  to  the  Imperial 
Council ;  and  if  it  there  secures  approval,  it  is  laid  before 
the  czar,  who  signs  it  or  not,  as  it  meets  his  views. 
But  sometimes  these  formalities  are  dispensed  with  alto- 
gether, —  generally,  when  the  enactment  in  question  is  one 
not  likely  to  secure  the  approval  of  a  majority  of  the  min- 
isters or  the  council.  Such,  for  instance,  was  the  edict  ex- 
pelling the  Jews  from  Moscow,  which  was  decreed  without 
asking  the  advice  of  ministers  or  the  Imperial  Council.  It 
was  promulgated  after  a  report  handed  in  by  the  minister 
for  foreign  affairs,  who  had  been  encouraged  to  take  this  step 
by  the  Grand  Duke  Sergius  Alexandrovitch,  brother  of  the 
emperor,  —  in  some  respects  a  reproduction  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Constantine  Paulovitch  of  a  preceding  generation. 

Again,  the  measure  that  has  done  most  to  undo  the 
reforms  set  on  foot  after  the  Emancipation  has  been  that 
which  effaced  the  Zemstvos,  or  Provincial  Assemblies,  and 
in  their  place  set  over  the  village  communities  what  are 
called  district  commanders.  This  measure,  which  has  pro- 
duced a  radical  transformation  in  the  entire  internal  organi- 
zation of  the  empire,  as  established  twenty  years  before 
under  Alexander  II.,  was  signed  and  made  law  by  Alexander 
III.  in  opposition  to  the  votes  of  his  ministers  and  his 
council. 

1  E.  B.  Lanin,  Leisure  Hour,  1892,  —  Statesmen  of  Europe. 


RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

The  district  commander  must  inevitably  be  an  hereditary 
noble.  He  is  appointed  by  the  government,  nor  need  he  be 
in  any  way  connected  with  the  district  he  is  to  govern.  His 
functions  are  both  those  of  administrator  and  judge.  His 
duty  is  to  see  that  no  Mir  deviates  from  the  way  in  which  it 
should  act  to  suit  the  emperor's  policy.  The  agents  of  the 
district  governors  are  the  police.  It  is  the  reintroduction 
of  a  system  of  centralized  bureaucracy  into  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, and  sets  over  the  emancipated  serf  two  masters,  the 
Mir  and  the  commander  of  the  district,  in  place  of  his 
hereditary  master  and  the  headman  of  his  village. 

Strictly  honest  himself,  the  czar  has  aimed  to  surround 
himself  with  men  of  respectability.  A  man  whose  moral 
character  will  not  bear  investigation  rarely  can  find  favor 
with  Alexander  III.  Talent  or  administrative  capacity  are 
secondary  considerations.  Ministers  need  not  agree  with 
each  other's  views,  and  are  never  called  upon  to  act  as  a 
cabinet,  but  each  minister  or  imperial  councillor  must  adopt 
and  carry  out  his  master's  views  upon  three  subjects : 
orthodoxy,  autocracy,  and  nationality.  That  "  Russia  must 
be  for  the  Russians  "  is  a  favorite  maxim ;  therefore  there 
must  be  in  Russia  (which  unhappily  includes  many  nations, 
races,  and  religions)  only  one  faith,  the  Orthodox  Russian 
Church,  of  which  the  emperor  is  the  anointed  Head.  Auto- 
cracy (which  means  the  czar's  will,  as  set  forth  by  his 
ukases,  and  carried  out  by  the  army  of  officials  through 
which  it  percolates  to  his  people)  must  be  absolute  and 
paramount.  Nationality  implies  that  by  any  means,  how- 
ever arbitrary,  all  the  various  peoples  who  dwell  under  the 
czar's  rule  are  to  be  forced  to  surrender  any  national  insti- 
tutions they  have  inherited  from  their  ancestors,  and  are 
to  become  Russified.  To  this  end  the  Mir,  the  Slavonian 
village  system,  has  been  forced  upon  the  Poles,  the  Finns, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  Baltic  Provinces.  To  this  end 
the  Jews  are  to  be  as  speedily  as  may  be  wiped  out  of  the 
empire.  Lutherans,  Catholics,  and  Orthodox  dissenters  are 
to  be  made  to  feel  that  they  can  no  longer  live  comfortably 


ALEXANDER  III.  293 

rn  Holy  Russia.  It  is  to  be  a  Slav  Empire.  Already  men 
whose  names  denote  that  they  are  not  Slavs  by  descent, 
even  if  they  have  been  born  Russian  subjects,  are  being 
weeded  out  of  the  army  and  the  public  service.  It  is  a 
new  crusade  against  modern  progress,  and  Alexander  III. 
has  taken  the  cross,  and  said  Dieu  le  veult,  as  sincerely  as 
any  monarch,  knight,  or  baron  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

As  I  write  these  things  they  seem  incredible,  but  they  are 
literally  true.  Western  progress  means  to  the  Emperor 
Alexander  the  social  immorality  of  France,  her  political 
unrest,  and  her  detestable  liberalism ;  it  means  the  subjec- 
tion of  the  head  of  the  State  in  England  to  such  fluctuations 
of  public  opinion  as  regulate  the  action  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment ;  it  means  the  religious  antagonisms  of  Christian  sects 
and  churches;  it  means  interminable  discussions  (which 
the  czar  hates)  ;  it  means  experiments  with  things  too 
sacred  to  be  touched,  —  a  swift  rushing  toward  the  welter- 
ing gulf  of  atheism  and  anarchy.  While  we  look  upon 
Russia  as  a  country  that  has  already  become  effete,  and  is 
on  the  point  of  retiring  from  the  page  of  history,  the  czar, 
and  those  who  think  with  him,  consider  that  its  destiny  is 
to  devote  itself  to  its  historical  mission  of  destroying  the 
culture  of  the  West,  and  so  averting  what  at  present  seems 
the  doom  of  the  world. 

This  would  be  history  all  over  again,  and  in  the  twentieth 
or  twenty-first  century  a  new  Gibbon  would  find  materials 
for  a  new  "  Decline  and  Fall." 

In  Russia  there  is  no  public  opinion  either  to  oppose  or 
to  support  the  emperor's  views,  and  were  this  not  the  case 
Alexander  would  be  wholly  indifferent  to  public  opinion. 
He  intends  to  do  his  duty  as  he  sees  it ;  to  die  if  need  be 
as  a  martyr  to  his  duty,  which  is  to  enforce  on  Russia  the 
three  things  already  mentioned,  —  "  autocracy,  orthodoxy, 
and  nationality,"  in  which  he  sees  the  will  of  God,  and 
salvation  not  only  for  his  own  country,  but  possibly  here- 
after the  regeneration  of  the  world. 

As  there  is  no  representative  body  in  Russia  to  divide 


294      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

politicians  into  parties,  and  in  point  of  fact  no  politicians  to 
divide,  it  is  very  hard  to  classify  the  different  shades  of 
thought  pervading  society,  but  rarely  finding  public  expres-  . 
sion  within  the  limits  of  Russia.  Perhaps  they  may  be 
roughly  divided  into  six  classes  :  peasant  opinion ;  Nihilism  \ 
liberal  opinion ;  Slavophilism  ;  Pan-Slavism ;  and  the  opinion 
of  the  emperor. 

All  our  information  about  Russia  seems  so  very  vague 
that  modern  writers  do  not  even  agree  as  to  its  population. 
Some  estimate  it  at  one  hundred  and  ten  millions,  some  at 
one  hundred  millions,  some  at  ninety  millions,  some  at 
eighty  millions.  All  these  statements  I  have  found  in  writ- 
ings apparently  speaking  with  authority  upon  the  subject, 
in  the  last  five  years.  But  whatever  the  millions  more  or 
less  may  be,  it  is  probably  an  overestimate  to  say  that  not 
more  than  ten  millions  of  the  czar's  subjects  have  any  polit- 
ical views.  The  mass  of  the  people  believe  in  the  czar, 
obey  his  police,  grumble  at  their  condition  when  misfortune 
seems  to  come  upon  them  from  local  injustice  on  the  part 
of  their  communities,  but  whatever  appears  to  have  come 
upon  them  directly  from  the  hand  of  God,  or  the  will  of 
the  emperor,  as  manifested  through  his  representatives,  is 
accepted  with  submission. 

Secondly  we  have  Nihilists,  bound  together  in  a  secret 
society  to  effect  destruction.  Their  doctrine  for  the  future, 
so  far  as  they  have  set  it  forth,  is  universal  brotherhood. 
Their  motto  might  be  "Liberty,  Fraternity, — or  Death." 
Love  for  country,  love  for  family,  rights  of  property,  are 
among  the  things  to  be  done  away.  Their  number  cannot 
be  very  great,  but  their  works  are  deeds  of  darkness ;  and  not 
being  restrained  by  laws  of  conscience,  such  as  regulate  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  other  men,  they  are  dangerous  unspeak- 
ably. A  counter  organization  was  at  one  time  formed 
among  the  young  nobility  of  Russia,  to  which  Prince  Demi- 
dorff  (the  husband  of  Princess  Mathilde)  contributed  large 
funds.  It  was  a  secret  society  intended  to  detect  Nihilists, 
and  to  circumvent  their  plots,  but  it  was  soon  found  that 


ALEXANDER  III.  2C)$ 

amateur  detectives  fell  into  such  mistakes  that  the  Emperor 
Alexander  III.  put  an  end  to  it. 

Thirdly,  there  is  a  class  of  liberal  thinkers  who  cannot 
be  classed  with  Nihilists,  —  men  who  would  have  been  fol- 
lowers of  Loris  Melikoff,  and  have  labored  for  reform ;  but 
who  now,  driven  to  secrecy,  groaning  under  their  own  im- 
potence, and  resenting  repression,  have  among  them  those 
who  carry  liberal  theories  to  an  impracticable  extreme,  and 
find  occasion  to  express  their  feelings  in  intemperate  lan- 
guage through  the  press  of  foreign  countries.  They  suffer 
themselves  abroad  to  be  classed  with  Nihilists,  and  share 
the  fate  of  Nihilists  at  home  when  they  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  police.  Their  sentiments  range  from  those  of  the 
statesman  and  reformer  to  those  of  extreme  demagogues. 
All  forbidden  fruit  has  for  them  "£n  attraction ;  and,  alas, 
fruits  the  most  wholesome,  as  well  as  the  most  poisonous,  are 
forbidden  in  Russia.  Among  these  liberals  may  be  classed 
those  who  hold  eccentric,  communistic,  philanthropic  opin- 
ions, like  Count  Leo  Tolstoi,  who  owes  his  protection  from 
the  police  to  the  interest  the  emperor  is  said  to  take  in 
his  writings.  The  only  novel  of  his  that  the  emperor  has 
disapproved  was  the  "  Kreutzer  Sonata,"  which  he  placed 
under  the  ban.  He  subsequently  removed  that  ban,  and 
repented  it  afterward. 

Fourthly,  we  have  those  who  are  called  Slavophils,  — 
fanatics  for  the  restoration  of  old  Muscovite  Russia.  Their 
stronghold  is  Moscow,  the  ancient  capital.  They  look  on 
Peter  the  Great  as  the  worst  enemy  of  his  country,  he  hav- 
ing introduced  into  it  Western  culture  and  Western  ideas. 
They  have  no  sympathy  with  Slavs  outside  of  Russia.  They 
care  nothing  for  the  Russification  of  outlying  provinces. 
Slavs  must  be  born,  not  made,  is  their  motto.  They 
would  like  to  see  the  old  Russian  dress  resumed,  and  old 
Russian  manners.  They  care  nothing  for  foreign  litera- 
ture or  for  the  classics.  Old  Russian  literature  alone  is  to 
be  cultivated. 

Fifthly,  there  are  the  Pan-Slavists,  who  desire  to  unite  all 


2Q6      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Slav  races  into  one  federated  empire,  of  which  Russia 
shall  be  the  head,  as  Prussia  is  of  Germany.  A  Slavophil, 
Ivan  Aksakoff,  writes  thus  of  the  Pan-Slavists,  and  their 
notions  :  "  I  and  my  relatives  do  not  believe  in  Pan-Slavism, 
—  nay,  we  consider  it  impossible ;  firstly,  because  it  would 
require  the  adoption  of  a  single  faith  by  all  the  Slav  races ; 
and  the  Catholicism  of  Bohemia  and  Poland  would  bring  a 
hostile  foreign  element  into  our  community,  which  could 
not  be  amalgamated  with  the  orthodox  faith  of  the  other 
Slavs;  secondly,  because  the  individual  elements  of  the 
Slavonic  nations  must  previously  be  dissolved  and  fused 
into  a  differently  characterized,  more  powerful,  more  united, 
and  mighty  nationality,  —  namely,  the  Russian ;  thirdly,  be- 
cause a  large  part  of  the  Slavonic  races  is  already  infected 
by  the  influence  of  barren  Western  liberalism,  which  con- 
flicts with  the  spirit  of  Russian  orthodoxy.  Russia  is  far  more 
to  me  than  all  the  Slavs.  We  have  been  reproached  with 
indifference  to  all  Slavs  outside  the  Russian  kingdom ;  nay, 
outside  Greater  Russia."  To  this  the  Emperor  Nicholas 
appended  an  autograph  note  on  the  MS. :  "  And  he  is 
right ;  for  everything  else  is  madness.  God  alone  can 
determine  what  is  to  happen  in  the  far  future.  Even  if 
every  circumstance  should  combine  to  lead  up  to  tHis  (the 
Pan-Slavic)  union,  its  accomplishment  would  be  the  ruin  of 
Russia."  l  Nevertheless,  Pan-Slavism  has  great  hold  on  the 
mass  of  educated  Russians ;  but  it  is  not  the  idea  of  the 
emperor.  His  opinions,  and  those  who  follow  him,  we 
class  as  sixthly.  He  has  no  wish  to  govern  over  a  federa- 
tion of  Slav  peoples,  of  whom  the  greater  part  would  be 
little  in  sympathy  with  Holy  Russia,  and  who,  like  the 
people  of  our  own  States,  would  have  constitutions,  legisla- 
tures, laws,  and  customs  of  their  own.  He  wishes  to  be 
autocrat  over  all  Russia,  —  to  Russify  his  outlying  provinces, 
to  extend  his  power  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  to  strengthen 
orthodoxy.  "Russia  for  the  Russians," — is  a  maxim  he 

1  Russia  under   Alexander   III.;   translated  from  Von  Samson- 
Himmelstierna. 


ALEXANDER  III.  2Q7 

believes  in;  and  he  is  wholly  disinclined  to  admit  non- 
Russians,  even  if  they  may  be  Slavs,  into  what  he  desires 
should  be  a  close  corporation,  as  exclusive  as  Dr.  Francia 
made  Paraguay,  or  Cotton  Mather  and  Winthrop  would 
gladly  have  made  their  colony  in  New  England. 

The  private  habits  of  Alexander  III.  are  of  the  simplest 
kind.  Discussion  or  representations,  I  have  said,  he  par- 
ticularly dislikes ;  and  his  intercourse  with  his  ministers  is 
largely  carried  on  in  writing,  chiefly  by  brief  remarks  made 
on  the  margin  of  the  reports  submitted  to  him.  These 
reports,  he  requires,  should  be  very  brief.  The  only  per- 
sons who  feel  it  likely  they  can  obtain  a  hearing,  when  of- 
fering him  opinions  in  opposition  to  his  own,  are  his 
connections,  the  Danish  king  and  queen.  The  queen 
made  repeated  attempts  to  influence  "  Uncle  Sasha  "  in 
favor  of  the  Lutherans  in  the  Baltic  Provinces ;  "  she  might 
have  spent  her  time  as  profitably  in  reasoning  with  the 
Egyptian  Sphinx."  On  one  occasion,  after  her  Majesty  and 
her  consort  had  exhausted  their  eloquence  and  their  stock 
of  facts,  the  czar  replied  dryly  :  "  I,  a  born  Russian,  find  it 
a  difficult  task  to  govern  my  people  from  Gatchina,  which, 
as  you  know,  is  in  Russia ;  and  now  do  you  really  fancy  that 
you,  who  are  foreigners,  can  rule  them  more  successfully 
from  Copenhagen?"1 

The  same  writer  tells  us  :  — 

"  Those  who  accuse  the  emperor  of  cruelty  wrong  the  man, 
and  misconstrue  his  acts.  .  .  .  His  intentions  have  never  been 
called  in  question  by  those  who  are  competent  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  his  conduct.  He  has  granted  their  lives  to  many  men 
who  risked  them  in  dastardly  attempts  to  take  his  own  ;  and 
there  are  depths  of  tenderness  in  his  soul  which  even  most  of  his 
ministers  do  not  suspect ;  and  if  his  people  are  none  the  better 
for  them,  the  fault  cannot  be  entirely  laid  upon  his  shoulders, 
but  must  be  added  to  the  mountains  of  wrong  that  may  never 
be  rightly  apportioned.  .  .  .  Alexander  III.  has  never  regarded 
his  kingly  office  as  anything  but  a  heavy  burden,  which  personal 
inclination,  as  well  as  common  prudence,  imperatively  urged  him 

1  E.  B.  Lanin,  Contemporary  Review. 


2Q8      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

to  shake  off ;  and  he  richly  deserves  all  the  credit  attaching  to 
the  mistaken  sense  of  religious  duty  which  makes  him  disregard 
his  own  happiness,  and  the  manly  courage  which  he  has  opposed 
to  considerations  of  his  own  safety." 

The  person  whose  indirect  influence  has  been  of  most 
importance  to  the  emperor  has  been  his  former  tutor,  M. 
Probe donostzeff.  He  has  elevated  this  gentleman  to  an 
office  which  corresponds  to  that  of  minister  of  worship  in 
France,  and  has  given  him  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet.  "  His 
influence,"  says  the  writer  who  has  described  all  the  states- 
men of  Europe  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  "  Leisure 
Hour,"  "  almost  overshadows  the  throne.  More  than  half 
the  existing  ministers  owe  their  nomination,  more  or  less 
directly,  to  his  influence."  Without  being  in  the  least 
"  a  religious  enthusiast,  he  is  convinced  that  he  has  been 
called  of  God  to  save  Russia  from  that  breaking  up  into 
rival  creeds  which  exists  in  the  rest  of  Europe.  To  him 
Russia  is  a  church  ;  she  is  primarily  a  religious  communion, 
and  only  secondarily  a  secular  community.  He  holds  that 
the  Church  saved  Russia  in  the  past,  and  that  the  sacred 
duty  which  history  has  bequeathed  to  the  Russian  govern- 
ment as  the  first  of  all  its  duties  is  to  safeguard  the  ortho- 
dox Church  against  anything  that  should  menace  its  security 
and  unity."  Imbued  by  such  ideas,  and  supported  by  the 
emperor,  he  has  in  his  new  office  every  opportunity  of  car- 
rying into  effect  the  religious  persecutions  undertaken  at 
his  instigation ;  "  and  never  has  superstitious  religion,  as 
distinguished  from  real  religion,  been  so  rife  in  the  empire 
as  it  is  now." 

The  czar  lives  principally  at  Gatchina,  having  a  great  dis- 
like to  residing  at  St.  Petersburg,  where  what  little  liberty 
he  can  enjoy  in  his  well-watched  country-home  is  curtailed 
by  the  precautions  of  the  police.  When  at  St.  Petersburg 
he  occupies  apartments  in  the  Anitchkoff  Palace,  avoiding 
the  Winter  Palace,  the  scene  of  his  father's  death  and  of 
several  explosions.  When  residing  at  Gatchino,  where  he 
has  selected  for  himself  the  worst  suite  of  rooms  in  the 


ALEXANDER  III. 


299 


palace,  "  he  rises  at  seven,  takes  a  quiet  stroll  in  the  unin- 
teresting grounds  of  the  park,  returns  to  early  breakfast, 
and  engages  in  some  severe  manual  labor  as  preparation 
for  the  official  work  of  the  day."  He  is  unusually  strong, 
having  been  known  in  his  young  days  to  bend  a  bar  of  iron 
across  his  knee.  He  is  so  much  a  prisoner  that  all  forms 
of  exercise  taken  for  healthful  amusement  by  country 
gentlemen  are  denied  him,  and  he  has  to  invent  bodily 
labor  for  himself.  "  He  unhesitatingly  puts  his  hand  to 
any  kind  of  work  that  has  to  be  done;  but  his  usual 
occupation  is  to  fell  trees,  to  saw  them  into  planks,  to  plane 
them,  and  generally  to  prepare  them  for  the  cabinet-maker. 
In  winter  the  gardeners  have  strict  orders  not  to  clear  away 
the  snow  from  the  avenues  and  walks  of  the  park,  which  is 
invariably  left  for  his  Majesty,  who,  attired  in  a  short  gray 
jacket,  shovels  it  up  into  enormous  mounds,  and  then  trans- 
fers it  to  a  cart.  It  occasionally  happens,  when  he  cannot 
complete  the  task  he  has  set  himself  within  the  time  at  his 
disposal,  that  his  children  lend  him  their  assistance  and  cart 
away  the  snow  to  a  remote  part  of  the  grounds."  1 

Alexander  dislikes  horseback  exercise ;  and,  indeed,  it 
would  expose  him  to  too  many  dangers.  He  is  said  to  be 
nervous  even  when  driving ;  and  no  wonder,  for  regicides 
have  commonly  found  their  best  opportunity  when  their 
victim  was  in  a  carriage. 

Alexander  III.  takes  great  interest  in  Russian  history, 
particularly  in  what  relates  to  its  romance,  and  has  even 
established  in  his  palace  an  historical  society,  which  meets 
several  times  during  the  winter,  and  of  which  he  is  presi- 
dent. The  amusement  he  takes  most  pleasure  in  is  the 
opera.  For  martial  manoeuvres  he  has  little  taste.  As 
czarevitch  he  did  conscientious  service  at  the  head  of  a 
corps  d'armfa  in  the  war  of  1877  ;  but  the  "  pride,  pomp, 
and  circumstance  of  glorious  war  "  have  little  attraction  for 
him.  This  greatly  impairs  his  popularity  with  his  army, 
which  is  said  to  be  not  wholly  well  affected  to  its  sovereign. 

1  E.  B.  Lanin,  Contemporary  Review. 


30O      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Indeed,  in  March,  1887,  on  the  same  day  of  the  year  and 
on  the  spot  where  his  father  had  been  murdered,  some 
young  Cossacks  of  the  Don  were  arrested,  who  were  about 
to  throw  a  bomb  under  his  carriage  as  he  was  returning 
from  a  mass  held  for  the  repose  of  his  father's  soul.  Very 
recently  a  mutiny  among  the  Cossacks  in  southern  Russia 
has  been  reported  in  our  newspapers;  but  the  details  of 
all  such  outbreaks  and  of  attempts  on  the  czar's  life  are  now 
withheld  from  the  public  as  much  as  possible. 

No  wonder  that  sad  experience  has  taught  the  czar  to 
distrust  human  nature.  Here  are  a  few  facts  reported  by 
an  already  quoted  writer :  — 

"  Having  put  his  trust  in  a  minister  who  was  also  a  soldier, 
he  had  the  chagrin  to  discover,  later  on,  that  to  that  apparently 
frank  soldier  truth  was  stranger  than  fiction.1  He  made  a  com- 
panion of  another  general,  with  whom,  during  the  Turkish  War, 
he  had  been  wont  to  play  interminable  games  of  chess  ;  and 
scarcely  had  he  placed  the  crown  upon  his  head  than  he  was 
called  upon  to  sign  the  sentence  banishing  that  same  general 
to  Siberia,  for  having,  at  the  very  time  when  he  used  to  play 
chess  with  his  future  sovereign,  taken  an  active  part  in  an 
infamous  conspiracy  to  starve  the  wretched  soldiery,  and  put 
the  money  intended  for  their  rations  into  his  pocket.  ...  He 
has  seen  a  trusted  minister,  whose  solid  reputation  rested  on  his 
zeal  to  spread  Orthodoxy  and  root  out  Catholicism,  convicted  of 
robbing  widows  and  orphans  of  the  millions  destined  to  alleviate 
their  lot,  and  then  commit  suicide  to  escape  from  justice.  .  ,  . 
He  has  absolute  confidence  in  no  man,  and  for  the  objects  of 
his  trust  must  look  to  God  and  to  the  narrow  circle  of  his  own 
immediate  family." 

In  judging  Alexander  III.  we  are  apt  to  forget  that  he  is 
a  born  Russian,  —  nay,  that  there  is  much  of  the  moujik  in 
his  composition.  He  partakes  the  national  characteristics 
of  his  people,  —  their  fatalism,  their  spirit  of  submission 
to  the  divine  will,  their  stolid  apathy,  which  is  seldom 
aroused  except  by  religious  emotion.  But  sobriety  and 
honesty  are  virtues  all  his  own. 

1  Probably  General  Ignatieff,  the  diplomat,  whose  nickname  in 
Turkey  was  "  the  Father  of  Lies." 


EMPRESS  OF  RUSSIA. 


ALEXANDER  III.  30 1 

The  empress  devotes  herself  to  her  duties  as  a  mother 
and  a  wife.  Her  duties  as  an  empress  seem  to  consist 
chiefly  in  giving  a  tone  to  good  society.  On  her  devolve 
the  social  obligations  of  the  crown.  To  promote  frivolity 
among  the  upper  classes  of  St.  Petersburg  is  to  turn  away 
their  thoughts  from  dangerous  things.  The  emperor  dis- 
likes all  kinds  of  social  "  functions."  His  State  Balls  must 
close  some  hours  earlier  than  those  given  by  his  subjects. 
He  himself  always  takes  an  early  dinner,  unless  obliged  to 
entertain  guests  at  his  table.  When  he  drives  out,  the  em- 
press almost  always  accompanies  him,  preferring  to  share  his 
danger  rather  than  anticipate  it  at  home. 

The  imperial  pair  have  five  children :  the  Czarevitch 
Nicholas,  the  Grand  Duke  George,  the  universally  praised 
and  admired  Grand  Duchess  Xenia,  who  is  now  grown  to 
womanhood,  Michael,  and  Olga,  who  are  children  still. 
None  of  these  young  people  have  yet  been  married ;  but 
the  czarevitch  has  been  betrothed  to  Princess  Alice  of 
Hesse-Darmstadt,  granddaughter  of  Queen  Victoria.  It  is 
said  that  the  health  of  the  elder  grand  dukes  gives  their 
parents  cause  for  uneasiness.  There  is  consumption  in  the 
family  through  their  grandmother,  Marie  of  Darmstadt. 

The  other  members  of  the  imperial  family  are  the  Grand 
Duke  Michael  Nicholaivitch,  uncle  of  the  emperor,  and  his 
wife,  a  princess  of  Baden.  He  has  a  family  of  seven  chil- 
dren, —  six  sons  and  a  daughter,  —  but  takes  no  part  in 
political  life.  He  made  at  one  time  an  excellent  governor 
in  the  Caucasus. 

His  brother,  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  Nicholaivitch, 
now  dead,  was  a  man  of  considerable  accomplishments,  who 
will  be  missed  at  St.  Petersburg  in  artistic  and  literary 
circles.  He  died  of  a  lingering  and  painful  illness  a  few 
years  since,  and  left  three  sons.  The  two  younger,  Con- 
stantine and  Dimitri,  are  the  emperor's  aides-de-camp; 
the  eldest  is  the  young  prince  who  some  years  ago  made  a 
scandal  by  stealing  his  mother's  jewels  that  he  might  bestow 
them  on  an  American  courtesan.  He  has  been  banished 


3O2      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

to  a  military  post  in  the  Caucasus,  whence  he  is  not  likely  to 
return. 

The  emperor's  sister  is  Marie,  Duchess  of  Edinburgh. 
His  brothers  are  the  Grand  Dukes  Vladimir,  Sergius,  Alexis, 
and  Paul. 

Both  Vladimir  and  Sergius  married  ladies  who  were  not 
of  the  orthodox  Church.  The  Grand  Duchess  Maria  Pau- 
lovna,  a  princess  of  Mecklenberg,  retains  her  Lutheran  faith  ; 
but  the  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke  Sergius,  nee  Princess  Eliza- 
beth of  Hesse -Darmstadt,  daughter  of  the  lamented  English 
Princess  Alice,  has  succumbed  to  the  pressure  put  upon  her, 
and  joined  the  national  church  of  Russia. 

The  Grand  Duke  Vladimir  keeps  aloof  from  political 
affairs.  The  Grand  Duke  Sergius,  who  is  at  present  gov- 
ernor of  Moscow,  is  a  bitter  persecutor  of  the  Jews,  —  a 
man  of  notoriously  brutal  character,  and  unfaithful  in  his 
conjugal  relations. 

The  Grand  Duke  Alexis  is  unmarried.  He  is  in  the 
navy,  and  a  few  years  ago  came  to  the  United  States,  where 
he  made  himself  extremely  popular,  especially  among  the 
ladies.  He  lives  as  little  as  possible  in  Russia,  and  takes 
no  part  in  political  affairs.  The  Grand  Duke  Paul,  who 
was  very  young  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  married 
his  cousin,  the  Grecian  Princess  Alexandra,  who  has  died 
recently. 

NOTE.  —  Since  this  chapter  was  written,  the  emperor,  in  June, 
1893,  has  appointed  Sergius  Julevitch  Witte  his  minister  of  finance. 
This  gentleman  was  born  in  the  Caucasus  in  1849,  where  his  father 
was  a  member  of  the  Caucasus  Government  Council.  Witte  has 
been  in  the  public  service  since  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  wherever 
employed  has  distinguished  himself  by  ability,  honesty,  and  great 
success  in  achieving  reforms  in  various  branches  of  administration. 
A  Russian  writer  is  reported  to  have  said  of  him :  "  He  is  of  strong 
character,  and  has  by  his  bluntness  gained  the  czar's  confidence. 
Practically  he  has  the  reins  of  government  in  his  own  hands." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SIBERIA. CENTRAL     ASIA. — THE     BALTIC     PROVINCES. THE 

PERSECUTION  "OF   THE    JEWS. 

THERE  have  been  no  picturesque  events  to  brighten 
the  reign  of  Alexander  III.  All  is  gloomy,  hopeless, 
painful,  as  indeed  seems  to  me  the  character  of  Russian  re- 
ligion, Russian  history,  Russian  life,  Russian  literature,  and 
Russian  art.  Besides  what  I  have  related  there  remains  to 
tell  something  about  Siberia  and  its  exiles ;  something  about 
the  Russian  advance  in  Central  Asia ;  something  about  the 
two  stupendous  railroads  which  before  the  close  of  this 
nineteenth  century  may  connect  St.  Petersburg  with  the 
Pacific ;  something  about  the  Russification,  political,  social, 
and  religious  of  the  unhappy  Baltic  Provinces,  with  brief 
allusions  to  the  recent  famine  and  the  persecution  of  the 
Jews. 

None  of  these  are  cheerful  subjects,  if  we  except  the 
magnificent  conception  and  execution  of  the  engineering 
work  across  the  continent  of  Asia,  but  our  story  would  be 
incomplete  if  they  were  left  without  allusion. 

The  subject  connected  with  Russia  that  has  probably  for 
every  foreigner  the  most  interest  is  the  condition  of  the  ex- 
iles of  Siberia ;  and  popular  interest  in  it  has  been  recently 
stimulated  by  the  papers  published  in  the  "  Century  "  by 
Mr.  Kennan,  and  the  lectures  he  has  given  in  various  cities. 

Mr.  Kennan  is  a  gentleman  who,  after  some  years  resi- 
dence in  Russia  and  acquaintance  with  its  language,  formed 
the  idea  in  1879  °f  writing  upon  exile  in  Siberia.  His  first 
papers,  like  those  of  an  American  clergyman  who  about 


304      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

the  same  time  visited  the  Russian  penal  colonies  and  pris- 
ons, were  to  the  effect  that  the  horrors  of  the  subject  had 
been  greatly  exaggerated.  In  this  spirit  he  made  a  report  to 
the  New  York  Geographical  Society,  which  paper  disposed 
the  Russian  government  in  his  favor,  so  that  he  received 
letters  from  Count  Dimitri  Tolstoi,  then  minister  of  the  in- 
terior, which  enabled  him  and  an  artist,  Mr.  Frost,  to  travel, 
unmolested  by  the  police,  through  Siberia,  to  examine  its 
prisons,  to  talk  freely  with  the  officials  and  the  exiles,  and 
to  bring  back  to  readers  in  the  Western  world  the  fullest 
information. 

In  considering  this  subject  we  must  first  disabuse  our- 
selves of  several  ideas  which  we  have  probably  held  from 
infancy,  —  to  begin  with,  that  Siberia  is  a  land  of  perpetual 
snow  and  ice,  barren  and  inhospitable.  "You  could  take," 
says  Mr.  Kennan,  "  the  whole  of  the  United  States,  from 
Maine  to  California,  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  set  it  down  in  the  middle  of  Siberia  without 
touching  its  borders.  You  could  then  take  Alaska,  and  all 
the  countries  of  Europe,  except  Russia,  and  fit  them  in  like 
pieces  of  a  dissected  map  round  the  edges  of  the  United 
States  as  it  lay  in  the  middle  of  Siberia,  and  you  would  still 
have  left  more  than  three  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of 
Siberian  territory." 

In  this  vast  region  there  is  every  variety  of  climate,  from 
arctic  to  tropical ;  the  beauty  of  the  scenery,  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  rivers,  and  above  all,  the  wonderful  brilliancy 
and  variety  of  its  flowers,  continually  strike  wonder  and 
admiration  into  travellers.  It  is  a  land  full  of  raw  materials 
for  wealth,  and  is  being  opened  up  rapidly  by  steam  naviga- 
tion, and  by  railroads. 

Another  usual  idea  is  that  the  exiles  of  Siberia  are  all 
political  exiles.  This  is  very  far  from  being  the  case.  Each 
village  community  —  the  Mir  (now  presided  over  by  the 
district  governor  and  the  government  police)  — has  a  right 
to  banish  to  Siberia  any  member  of  its  community  whom  it 
wishes  to  get  rid  of.  A  man  incapable  of  work  through 


SIBERIA,   ETC.  305 

drunkenness  ;  a  man  who  does  not  pay  his  share  of  the  com- 
mune's taxes ;  a  man  who  has  become  a  bad  character,  or 
made  himself  in  any  way  obnoxious  to  his  commune,  —  may 
by  its  decree  be  banished  to  Siberia ;  and  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren may  go  with  him,  partly  at  the  expense  of  the  govern- 
ment, partly  at  that  of  his  village.  There  is  no  appeal.  If 
the  Mir  decides  to  banish  him,  go  he  must. 

Another  class  of  persons  sent  to  Siberia,  and  the  most 
numerous,  are  criminals  convicted  in  local  courts  of  various 
offences.  They  are  treated  with  more  rigor  than  those  sim- 
ply exiled  from  their  villages,  are  not  given  land  on  their 
arrival  in  Siberia,  and,  if  great  criminals,  they  are  sent  to 
the  mines. 

A  third  popular  idea  is  that  all  the  political  exiles  are 
Nihilists.  This  is  by  no  means  the  case.  They  are  divided 
into  two  classes :  those  condemned  for  crimes  in  connec- 
tion with  politics,  who  have  been  tried  by  juries ;  and  those 
exiled  by  what  is  called  administrative  process,  namely,  per- 
sons arrested  without  trial,  without  crime,  on  mere  suspi- 
cion of  holding  opinions  that  may  become  dangerous  to  the 
peace  and  order  of  the  State.  The  political  criminals  go  to 
the  mines,  far  away  in  Eastern  Siberia,  where  no  pains  de- 
scribed in  the  Inferno  can  exceed  their  wretchedness.  If 
any  become  utterly  unmanageable,  they  are  sent  to  the 
Island  of  Saghalien  lying  north  of  Japan ;  and  no  one,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  has  ever  escaped  from  that  prison  island 
to  tell  its  secrets  to  the  Western  World. 

Those  arrested  by  administrative  process  are  settled  in 
various  villages,  and  allowed  to  enjoy  personal  freedom, 
though  closely  watched  by  officials ;  and  they  are  generally 
very  poor.  Some  have  their  families  with  them ;  some  are 
young  girls  who  have  imbibed  heated  notions  from  their  un- 
ripe higher  education.  These  are  the  exiles  with  whom 
Mr.  Kennan  chiefly  associated,  and  whom  he  found  mostly 
cultivated  and  agreeable  gentlemen  and  ladies. 

Noblemen  are  a  privileged  class,  even  in  Siberia.  They 
travel  in  carriages,  while  the  ruder  exiles  march  chained, 

20 


306       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

and  on  foot.  Boats  are  now  being  constructed  to  mitigate 
the  hardships  of  this  journey,  en  attendant  the  completion 
of  the  Siberian  railway.  By  these  boats  it  is  hoped  to  trans- 
port the  exiles  from  some  port  on  the  White  Sea  to  the 
great  rivers  Obi,  Yenesei,  or  Lena,  which,  after  traversing 
Siberia,  empty  into  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Some  persons  who 
have  seen  these  boats  in  process  of  construction  have  been 
shocked  to  find  a  large  part  of  their  decks  converted  into  a 
great  cage,  but  this  seems  a  far  more  humane  method  of 
transportation  than  the  land  journey.  The  plan  of  having 
barges  similarly  constructed  and  towed  by  steamers  has 
long  been  adopted  on  the  Volga,  and  Messrs.  Kennan  and 
Frost,  as  they  approached  Siberia  by  the  great  city  of 
Nishni- Novgorod,  met  many  parties  of  exiles,  for  the  most 
part  banished  by  the  Mir,  and  accompanied  by  their 
families. 

From  Nishni-Novgorod  (not  the  city  of  the  Norsemen  who 
founded  the  first  civilized  empire  in  Russia)  the  travellers  pro- 
ceeded to  Perm  at  the  foot  of  the  Ural  Mountains.  There, 
taking  the  Ural  railroad  they  found  excellent  stations  and 
European  cookery.  As  they  reached  the  summit  of  the 
Ural  Mountains  —  snow-covered  and  dreary  as  we  all  have 
imagined  them  — "  the  sun  was  shining  brightly  in  an 
unclouded  sky,  the  morning  air  was  cool,  fresh,  and  laden 
with  the  odor  of  flowers  and  the  resinous  fragrance  of 
mountain  pines;  a  cuckoo  was  singing  in  a  neighboring 
grove  of  birches,  and  a  glory  of  early  summer  was  over  all 
the  earth.  ...  As  the  train  swept  on  it  passed  over  miles 
and  miles  where  there  was  not  a  sign  of  human  life,  then 
past  placer  mining  camps,  where  men  and  women  were 
washing  for  gold.  Sometimes  we  came  out  into  beautiful 
park-like  openings,  diversified  by  clumps  of  graceful  silver 
birches,  and  carpeted  with  turf  almost  as  smooth  and  green 
as  an  English  lawn.  Flowers  were  everywhere  abundant. 
Roses,  dandelions,  violets,  wild  strawberries,  and  lilies  of 
the  valley  were  in  blossom  all  along  the  track,  and  occa- 
sionally we  crossed  a  glade  in  the  heart  of  the  forest  where 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  307 

the  grass  was  almost  hidden  by  a  vivid  sheet  of  yellow 
lilies."  Such  passages  as  this  abound  in  Mr.  Kennan's 
narrative. 

The  imperial  ukase  commanding  the  construction  of  the 
trans-Siberian  railroad  was  signed  May  19,  1891.  The 
railroad  was  at  once  commenced  at  both  ends ;  the  western 
end  has  reached  the  River  Tobol,  a  branch  of  the  Obi, 
while  the  eastern  end,  in  March,  1893,  starting  from  Vladi- 
vostok, a  place  so  strongly  fortified  as  to  be  a  sort  of 
Sebastopol  on  the  Sea  of  Japan,  has  been  completed  to 
Graffskaya  on  the  Amoor,  a  distance  of  four  hundred  versts, 
or  about  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles,  at  a  cost  of 
sixty  thousand  roubles  a  verst,  or  about  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars per  mile.  The  discovery  of  large  fields  of  coal,  both 
bituminous  and  anthracite,  much  of  it  of  very  fine  quality, 
and  some  of  it  smokeless,  will  be  of  inestimable  advantage 
to  the  new  railroad.  The  coal  is  being  rapidly  mined,  and 
much  of  it  is  within  easy  reach  of  Vladivostok.  The  Rus- 
sian government  has  already  expended  vast  sums  on  the 
most  improved  coal-mining  machinery ;  for  this  supply  of 
fuel  is  not  only  of  vast  importance  to  the  railroad,  but  to 
the  war-steamers  on  the  Pacific.  Before  this  century  closes 
we  may  see  a  line  of  steamers  in  the  merchant  service,  run- 
ning from  Vladivostok  to  San  Francisco,  touching  at  Japan 
and  at  the  Sandwich  islands,  and  opening  new  channels  for 
trade.  "  Over  six  thousand  men  are  steadily  employed  on 
the  railroad  at  its  eastern  end,  only  four  hundred  of  whom 
have  been  imported  from  Russia ;  eight  hundred  are  crimi- 
nal convicts  from  the  mines,  four  hundred  and  fifty  are 
exiles  under  police  supervision  "  (in  other  words  banished 
by  administrative  process) ,  "  two  thousand  are  Chinese 
laborers,  and  two  thousand  five  hundred  are  regular  Rus- 
sian soldiers."  l  But  there  has  been  trouble  among  the 
laborers,  the  soldiers  have  refused  to  work  with  the  crim- 
inals. The  imported  Russians  clamored  for  more  pay. 
The  convicts  escaped  in  considerable  numbers,  and  formed 
1  Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  M.  Gribayedoff.  March,  1893. 


308      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1XTH  CENTURY. 

predatory  bands  which  roamed  the  country,  and  kept  the 
governor's  hands  fully  employed  in  hunting  them  down. 

In  June,  1885,  however,  Mr.  Kennan  and  Mr.  Frost,  after 
crossing  the  Ural  Mountains  had  to  proceed  on  their  jour- 
ney in  a  tarrantas,  a  sort  of  boat  on  wheels.  It  had  no 
thwarts,  and  they  sat  on  their  luggage.  Soon  they  began 
to  pass  parties  of  exiles  on  the  march.  More  than  one 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  had  travelled  that  road  since 
1878,  and  more  than  half  a  million  since  the  beginning  of 
the  century. 

The  prisons,  and  the  etapes,  or  stations  where  the  exiles 
were  halted  on  their  march,  were  found  to  be  awful.  The 
great  receiving  prison  at  Tieumen  was  built  to  hold  eight 
hundred ;  when  Mr.  Kennan  saw  it  it  contained  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty-one.  As  we  read  his 
terrible  accounts  of  the  filth,  the  sickness,  and  above  all 
the  smells,  we  have  only  the  consolation  of  reminding  our- 
selves that  perhaps  to  the  Russian  peasant  these  things  are 
not  so  intolerable  as  they  would  be  to  an  American. 

In  the  year  1885  fifteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
sixty- six  persons  passed  the  boundary  of  Siberia  as  exiles ; 
of  these,  fifteen  hundred  were  criminals,  or  hard  labor  con- 
victs ;  twenty-six  hundred  and  fifty-nine  had  been  convicted 
of  minor  offences,  and  were  not  sentenced  to  hard  labor  in 
the  mines;  about  six  thousand  were  banished  men  and 
women,  of  whom  thirty-seven  hundred  were  exiled  by  the 
Mir;  seventeen  hundred  and  nineteen  were  deported  as 
being  tramps  ;  and  five  hundred  and  fifty  (of  whom  seventy- 
eight  were  were  women)  were  banished  by  administrative 
process  as  political  exiles.  Besides  these,  there  were  fifty- 
five  hundred  and  thirty-six  men,  women,  and  children 
accompanying  their  relatives.  The  exiles  by  administrative 
process  were,  however,  not  all  political  offenders.  Many 
were  exiles,  who,  having  finished  their  first  terms  of  banish- 
ment, were  refused  reinstation  in  their  village  communities, 
and  were  sent  back  to  Siberia  by  the  police. 

In  1885  the  long  journeys  on  foot  involved  terrible  suf- 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  309 

faring,  especially  to  women  and  children.  Among  the 
political  exiles  Mr.  Kennan  and  his  friend  found  many 
who  had  apparently  been  exiled  through  pure  misunder- 
standing. The  police,  often  ignorant  and  full  of  restless 
zeal,  turned  anything  into  a  dangerous  proof  of  disaffection  ; 
and  no  doubt  there  is  abundant  disaffection  in  all  the 
educated  classes  in  Russia.  With  Nihilists  plotting  all 
kinds  of  atrocities,  it  is  very  hard  to  blame  the  rude  zeal 
of  ignorant  officials ;  yet  Skobeleff  we  know  so  hated  and 
despised  the  government  police  that  he  always  turned  his 
back  on  any  man  who  had  entered  it  out  of  his  own  divi- 
sion. Mr.  Kennan  relates  many  sad  stories  ;  many  instances 
of  flagrant  injustice  and  oppression.  One  of  the  exiles 
whom  he  met  had  been  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy,  who 
accompanied  the  Grand  Duke  Alexis  when  he  visited  this 
country.  In  a  basket  on  his  table  were  cards  of  invitation 
to  many  of  the  best  houses  in  New  York,  where,  a  year  or 
two  before,  he  had  danced  gayly  and  enjoyed  himself. 

Some  of  the  administrative  exiles  were  literary  men ;  one 
was  a  novelist  whose  works  have  been  translated  in  America ; 
some  were  young  girls  who  had  been  studying  medicine ; 
some  were  editors,  reviewers,  and  professional  men. 

They  lived  in  log  cabins  very  poorly  furnished,  but  most 
of  them  had  books.  Mill,  Darwin,  Buckle,  and  Spencer 
were  apparently  great  favorites,  and  were  read  in  the 
original. 

The  exiles  have  been  described  by  a  Russian  official  as 
"  quiet,  orderly,  reasonable  human  beings.  We  certainly," 
he  added,  "  have  no  trouble  with  them  here.  Our  govern- 
ment treats  them  with  great  kindness  and  consideration, 
and,  so  far  as  I  know,  they  are  good  citizens." 

The  governor  of  Archangel  in  1883  reported  to  his 
government  that  "  from  the  experience  of  previous  years, 
and  from  my  own  personal  observation,  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  administrative  exile  for  political  reasons  is 
much  more  calculated  to  spoil  the  character  of  a  man  than 
to  reform  it.  The  transition  from  a  life  of  comfort  to  a  life 


3  IO       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

of  poverty,  from  a  social  life  to  a  life  in  which  there  is  no 
society,  and  from  a  life  of  activity  to  compulsory  inaction, 
produces  such  ruinous  consequences  that  not  unfrequently 
we  find  the  political  exiles  going  insane  and  committing 
suicide.  There  has  not  been  a  single  case  in  which  a  man 
suspected  with  good  reason  of  political  untrustworthiness, 
and  exiled  by  administrative  process,  has  returned  from 
such  banishment  reconciled  to  the  government,  convinced 
of  his  error,  and  changed  into  a  useful  member  of  society 
and  a  faithful  servant  of  the  throne." 

Escape,  to  a  certain  extent,  seems  frequent,  —  but  few 
of  those  who  escape  ever  get  alive  beyond  the  bounds  of 
Siberia.  As  a  soldier  said  to  one  who  was  recaptured : 
"The  czar's  cow-pasture  is  large,  but  there  is  no  getting 
out  of  it." 

From  time  to  time  French,  English,  and  American 
magazines  give  accounts  of  exiles  who  have  escaped  from 
Siberia ;  these  seldom  complain  of  personal  ill-treatment 
from  Siberian  officials ;  on  the  contrary,  the  higher  officials 
seem  to  exhaust  themselves  in  making  reports,  probably  far 
from  agreeable  to  the  czar,  advising  better  accommodation 
in  the  prisons,  better  clothing,  better  hospitals,  etc.,  —  reports 
which,  when  they  reach  St.  Petersburg  are  rarely  attended 
to.  Let  us  trust  that  improved  means  of  transportation  will 
diminish  the  worst  horrors  of  the  system. 

If  we  look  at  the  matter  from  the  point  of  view  taken  by 
political  malcontents,  who  can  blame  them  for  aspirations 
after  better  things,  —  though  where  the  materials  for  political 
betterment  are  to  come  from,  who  can  say?  And  when 
driven  frantic  by  the  oppressions  of  the  police,  by  the  im- 
prisonment of  friends,  and  all  the  rest,  who  shall  blame 
them  if  they  look  on  Nihilists  with  a  more  lenient  eye  than 
we  can?  As  a  Russian,  tried  in  1881  for  one  of  the 
attempts  on  Alexander  II. 's  life,  said  of  a  comrade  :  "  He 
was  not  very  well  inclined  to  the  terrorizing  system,  and 
had  but  lately  joined  it,  moved  solely  by  a  revengeful  and 
embittered  feeling  toward  the  government,  in  consequence 


SIBERIA,   ETC.  31 1 

of  a  long  series  of  cruel  persecutions,  which  had  impressed 
him  the  more  deeply  that  some  of  those  who  had  suffered 
were  his  associates  and  friends." 

We  may  indeed  thus  palliate  the  criminality  of  such  acts, 
but  nothing  can  mitigate  their  unwisdom.  The  men  and 
women  who  destroyed  the  emperor-liberator  shattered  the 
dawning  hope  of  better  days  for  their  own  country.  Russia 
indeed  at  the  time  of  Alexander's  death  seems  to  have 
been  politically  and  socially  in  a  state  of  wild  disorder  •  but 
we  all  know  by  experience  that  when  we  begin  to  set  our 
house  in  order  the  first  result  is  dust  and  general  confusion. 

I  will  close  this  part  of  my  subject  with  what  a  Russian 
lady  says  of  the  possible  ultimate  fate  of  some  of  these 
political  exiles,  so  deeply  and  so  justly  pitied  by  Mr. 
Kennan,  and  through  his  representations,  by  ourselves.  It 
throws  a  somewhat  brighter  light  upon  a  lurid  picture  :  1 

"  Let  us  follow  those  whose  doom  is  heaviest.  Few  of  them, 
probably  none,  will  end  their  allotted  time  at  the  mines  or  the 
State  factories.  An  untimely  death  will  doubtless  end  the  suffer- 
ings of  many  before  the  tardy  hand  of  mercy  can  reach  them. 
Yet,  wonderful  to  say,  many  more  survive  the  horrors  of  the  first 
years  than  would  seem  possible  for  men  of  gentle  nurture  and 
unhardened  body.  If  they  are  resigned,  and  quietly  behaved, 
they  will,  after  a  while,  —  three,  four,  or  five  years,  —  instead  of 
the  fifteen  or  twenty  of  their  sentence,  be  brought  under  one  of 
the  so-called  'gracious  manifestoes'  which  are  always  being 
issued  on  occasions  of  birthdays,  marriages,  etc.,  in  the  imperial 
family.  They  will  then  be  transferred  to  some  one  of  the  con- 
vict colonies,  from  which  in  due  time  they  will  be  released  in 
like  manner,  and  allowed  to  live  within  some  particular  rural 
district  at  a  great  distance  from  any  city  or  town,  and  under 
strict  surveillance  of  the  local  police.  Gradually  the  range 
widens  till  it  comprises  district  towns,  the  surveillance  is  light- 
ened ;  at  last  the  capital  of  the  government  itself  is  opened  to 
the  half-pardoned  convict,  and  with  it  society,  and  resources  of 
every  kind.  It  now  depends  in  a  great  measure  on  himself,  on 
his  good  sense  and  abilities,  to  shape  his  further  fortunes.  Men 
of  education,  and  scientific  or  technical  attainments,  are  in  as 

1  International  Review. 


312       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

great  demand  (and  for  the  same  reasons)  in  the  Far  East  of 
Russia  as  in  the  Far  West  of  America ;  and  when,  by  the  end  of 
ten  or  twelve  years,  as  is  generally  the  case,  and  after  having 
been  previously  transferred  to  the  more  populous  and  civilized 
western  governments,  the  political  convict  is  restored  to  his 
rank  and  privileges,  freed  from  all  disabilities  and  finally  recalled 
from  banishment,  it  is  by  no  means  rare  to  see  him  return  to 
the  shores  of  Lake  Baikal  of  his  own  free  will,  to  settle  there  for 
life.  I  have  known  such,  —  lawyers,  physicians,  engineers, 
miners,  able  and  energetic  men.  ...  One  young  lawyer  in  par- 
ticular I  remember.  He  was  a  little  over  thirty,  sturdy  of  frame, 
and  keen  of  look.  He  had  come  to  St.  Petersburg  to  assert  his 
newly  recovered  rights  and  to  transact  some  business,  but  all 
his  thoughts  were  centred  on  a  speedy  return  to  Irkoutsk,  where 
he  had  left  a  promising  practice,  some  half-started  ventures  in  a 
mining  enterprise,  and,  as  he  almost  hinted,  a  fairer  attraction. 
Such  political  exiles  as  are  not  deprived  of  their  liberty  have  of 
course  all  the  more  chances  in  their  favor.  The  intercession  of 
friends  at  home  also  does  much  to  shorten  their  term  and 
hasten  their  return  to  cities,  or  more  favorable  regions,  if  they 
behave  judiciously,  and  have  not  the  ill-luck  of  exceptionally 
falling  under  the  rule  of  some  of  those  ignorant  and  wantonly 
brutal  officials  whose  number  is  diminishing  every  year.  My 
object  is  by  no  means  to  palliate  the  horrors  of  the  penal  sen- 
tence known  as  *  hard  labor  in  the  mines.'  The  removal  from 
the  midst  of  civilization,  from  all  old  ties,  and  intellectual 
communion,  the  civil  death  which  it  entails,  the  rigid  climate, 
the  unwonted  physical  labor  and  coarse  food,  the  daily,  hourly 
association  with  real  malefactors,  many  of  them  hardened 
wretches  sunk  to  the  lowest  depths  of  degradation,  —  all  these 
are  features  doubtless  terrible  enough ;  but  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  this  heaviest  penalty  is  but  sparingly  inflicted  on 
4  politicals,'  and  that  the  victims  are  not  debarred  from  hope  in 
better  times." 

All  the  world  knows  Russia's  passionate  and  not  unrea- 
sonable desire  to  reach  the  sea.  The  Baltic  can  be  closed 
to  her  ships  by  the  Scandinavians,  her  outlet  by  the  Black 
Sea  is  blocked  by  Constantinople.  The  Arctic  Ocean  is 
shut  in  by  ice.  She  has  only  the  eastern  coast  of  Siberia, 
with  which  the  great  trans-Siberian  railroad  will  connect 
her ;  and  it  is  supposed  that  if  she  cannot  get  Constantinople 


SIBERIA,   ETC.  313 

she  is  aiming  to  indemnify  herself  by  gaining  communica- 
tion with  the  Persian  Gulf.  But  Russia  proceeds  warily. 
In  Central  Asia  in  eight  years  "  Russian  soldier-engineers 
have  taken  a  bold  flight  through  tracts  which  it  was  asserted 
they  could  never  reach,  and  have  laid  down  nine  hundred 
miles  of  rails,  uniting  Krasnovodsk  on  the  Caspian  with 
<  silken  Samarcand.'  They  have  crossed  the  sand  steppes 
to  the  north  of  Persia,  skirted  the  northern  slopes'  of 
the  mountain  ridge  that  forms  the  northern  boundary  of 
Persia,  reached  Merv  by  rail,  a  place  that  twenty  years  ago 
was  considered  inaccessible,  and  whose  history  goes  back 
into  pre-Christian  times ;  they  have  planted  their  rails  upon 
the  quivering,  shifting  sands  which  almost  fill  the  horrid 
space  from  Merv  to  the  Oxus,  thrown  a  bridge  over  its 
yellow  floods,  and  passing  near  Bokhara  '  the  holy '  have 
prolonged  the  path  of  the  '  devil's  cart,'  into  the  heart  of  a 
country  once  rich  and  prosperous,  and  have  set  up  their 
terminus  at  Samarcand  near  the  tomb  of  Timour."  l 

Between  Persia  and  British  India  lies  Afghanistan,  a 
"  land  of  the  mountain  and  the  flood,"  —  the  Highlands 
of  India.  In  Afghanistan  are  three  chief  places  forming  a 
military  triangle,  and  strongly  fortified,  —  Herat,  Cabul,  and 
Candahar.  Of  these,  Herat  lies  to  the  west,  not  far  from 
the  Persian  border,  and  is  on  the  direct  road  to  Bushire, 
the  principal  seaport  on  the  Persian  Gulf. 

Afghanistan  lies  both  north  and  south  of  the  great  chain 
of  mountains  running  across  Central  Asia.  We  know  them 
chiefly  as  the  Himalayas,  the  Hindoo  Koosh,  and  the 
Paropamisus,  a  low  range  lying  at  the  western  edge  of  the 
great  chain  between  Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  what  fifty 
years  ago  was  known  in  our  school-books  as  Independent 
Tartary. 

This  Turkestan,  or  Independent  Tartary,  in  which  lies 
the  Aral  Sea,  and  which  is  bordered  by  the  Caspian,  is 
watered  by  three  great  rivers,  the  two  principal  of  which 
are  the  Oxus  and  Jaxartes,  so  known  in  history,  but  now 

*  London  Spectator,  1888. 


3  14      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

called  by  Russians  the  Amu  Darya,  and  the  Sir  Darya.  The 
whole  country  was  in  prehistoric  times  an  inland  sea,  of 
which  the  present  Caspian  and  Aral  seas  formed  part.  It 
was  dotted  with  large  islands  which  are  now  oases  in  the 
midst  of  sand.  These  oases  are  many  days'  journey  from 
each  other.  Until  a  late  period  each  was  governed  by  its 
khan,  and  the  oases  collectively  are  called  the  Khanates. 
They  were  five:  Khiva,  Merv,  Bokhara,  Tashkend,  and 
Khokand.  The  Oxus  and  Jaxartes  were  formerly  mountain 
streams  falling  into  the  great  sea.  When  it  dried  up  they 
made  their  way,  the  one  into  Lake  Aral,  the  other  into  the 
Caspian.  But  some  centuries  ago  the  men  of  Khiva  built 
a  dam  across  the  Oxus  and  directed  its  channel  so  that  it 
flowed  into  Lake  Aral.  Ever  since  Peter  the  Great's  time 
the  Russians  had  been  planning  how  to  destroy  the  dam, 
and  turn  the  waters  back  into  their  old  channel,  when  a  few 
years  ago  a  great  freshet  came  to  their  assistance,  and  with- 
out the  need  of  engineering  the  Oxus,  or  Amu  Darya,  now 
flows  into  the  Caspian. 

This  territory,  once  a  great  inland  sea,  is  now  a  bare, 
sandy  desert,  with  the  exception  of  its  oases,  its  northern 
part  lying  between  the  Caspian  and  Aral  seas,  its  base  rest- 
ing on  the  undefined  frontier  of  Afghanistan,  whose  ameer 
claims  suzerainty  over  tribes  beyond  the  mountains ;  to  the 
east  it  is  bounded  by  deserts  and  mountains,  and  on  the 
west  by  Persia. 

Peter  the  Great  had  some  plans,  which  he  never  carried 
out,  for  the  subjugation  of  Khiva.  In  1839  an  expedition 
from  Russia  was  sent  against  it,  but  such  were  the  hardships 
of  crossing  the  deserts  that  the  expedition  had  to  retreat, 
having  lost  two  thirds  of  its  troops,  and  multitudes  of  camels 
and  horses.  Any  one  who  has  read  poor  Captain  Burnaby's 
"  Ride  to  Khiva  "  will  not  wonder  that  troops  carrying  their 
own  supplies,  broke  down  under  the  fatigue  of  the  sandy 
march,  the  horrible  heat  of  the  desert,  and  its  equally 
horrible  cold. 

About  1860  another  advance  began.     The  Sea  of  Aral 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  315 

was  reached,  and  the  Russians  then  marched  down  the 
banks  of  the  Amu  Darya  toward  Khiva.  But  the  farther 
they  advanced  the  more  opposition  they  encountered  from 
the  tribes  of  Tekkes,  or  Independent  Tartars.  "  We  must 
of  necessity  go  on,"  said  Prince  Gortschakoff,  "until  we 
reach  the  settled  States,  with  whom  we  can  enter  into  peace- 
ful commercial  relations,  profitable  to  both  parties.  And 
there  and  then  we  shall  stop." 

By  1865  the  Russians  had  acquired  all  northern  Inde- 
pendent Tartary,  and  then  they  took  Tashkend  and  Khokand, 
which  brought  them  near  the  khanate  of  Bokhara,  while 
over  the  mountains  in  an  outlying  district  of  the  Empire  of 
China,  lay  Kashgar  and  Yarkand,  places  whose  names  we 
read  in  newspapers  with  ignorant  indifference.  In  1868 
Samarcand  and  Bokhara  were  placed  under  a  Russian  pro- 
tectorate. Bokhara  had  always  been  a  place  of  refuge  for 
Afghan  deposed  princes.  In  1840  it  was  governed  by  that 
unspeakable  wretch  the  Emir  who  imprisoned  Captains 
Stoddard  and  Connelly,  and  finally  thrust  them  into  a 
dreadful  pit,  to  be  eaten  alive  by  insects  kept  there  for  the 
purpose;  from  which  death  one  is  thankful  to  think  they 
were  released,  on  some  sudden  alarm,  by  the  sword  of  the 
executioner. 

Khiva  and  Merv  remained  independent,  but  in  1873  three 
Russian  columns  marched  against  Khiva.  One  perished  of 
thirst  and  heat,  one  came  near  doing  so,  but  one  succeeded. 
Khiva  fell  without  a  struggle,  and  its  khan,  like  the  other 
khans,  became  a  Russian  feudatory. 

Russia  has  therefore  in  suzerainty  a  quadrangular  moun- 
tain and  desert  region  in  Central  Asia. 

One  of  the  officers  employed  in  this  war  against  the 
Tartars,  as  we  used  to  call  them  (Turcomans  and  Tekke"s 
the  books  name  them  now) ,  was  the  future  General  Mikhail 
Dimitrivitch  Skobeleff.  He  early  conceived  the  idea  that 
the  conquest  of  this  country  would  be  to  Russia  the  con- 
quest of  a  road  to  India  through  Afghanistan ;  that  some 
day,  if  England  continued  to  oppose  the  acquisition  of 


316       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

Constantinople,  Russia  through  Afghanistan  could  threaten 
her  Indian  possessions,  and  keep  her  armies  employed  for 
their  defence,  or  might  make  a  bargain  with  the  English 
government  promising  to  give  up  her  designs  on  India,  and 
relinquish  all  alliance  with  Afghanistan,  provided  England 
would  consent  to  her  designs  upon  Constantinople. 

The  Turkish  War  of  1877  broke  out,  and  Skobeleff  was 
sent  to  the  Danube.  The  English  government,  having  ven- 
tured some  remonstrances  about  the  Russian  advances  in  the 
East,  was  answered  somewhat  roughly  by  Prince  Gortschakoff 
that  while  he  "  had  a  whale  to  look  after  he  would  not 
trouble  himself  about  little  fishes."  But  he  very  seriously 
troubled  himself  about  the  "little  fishes"  notwithstanding; 
an  embassy  was  about  to  be  sent  to  Cabul  to  propitiate  the 
ameer ;  and  if  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  had  proved  wholly  un- 
satisfactory to  the  Emperor  Alexander,  or  had  he  been  one 
of  those  monarchs  who  "  delight  in  war,"  those  plans  would 
have  been  carried  out  which  were  already  made  for  an 
advance  on  India,  for  stirring  up  the  native  population 
against  the  British,  and  taking  a  position  of  strong  influence, 
if  not  of  authority,  in  Afghanistan.  At  that  time  Skobeleff 
had  his  scheme  fully  drawn  out  for  an  invasion  of  India,  by 
taking  possession  of  the  Afghan  passes,  —  the  Khyber  and 
the  Bolan.  He  seems  to  have  changed  his  mind,  however, 
afterward,  and  to  have  considered  that  the  best  way  to 
attack  India  would  be  by  crossing  the  Paropamisus  Moun- 
tains near  the  Persian  frontier,  and  taking  possession  of 
Herat. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  relate  the  history  of  Afghanistan, 
or  the  story  of  the  second  Cabul  massacre,  which  ended  by 
the  present  ameer  of  Afghanistan,  the  stern  and  cruel  Abdu- 
rahman,  being  placed  upon  the  Afghan  throne.  He  has 
maintained  himself  upon  that  throne  for  twenty  years ;  and 
on  the  whole  has  been  faithful  to  his  alliance  with  the  Eng- 
lish. But  his  life  is  an  uncertain  one.  He  suffers  severely 
from  gout,  he  is  always  exposed  to  assassination,  and  many 
men  have  with  him  blood-feuds  for  the  unjust  slaughter  of 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  317 

their  relatives.  His  authority  over  his  mountain  chiefs,  their 
strongholds,  and  their  followers  is  as  precarious  as  that  of  any 
King  James  or  King  Robert  in  Scottish  history  over  High- 
land chieftains  and  their  clans.  When  Abdurahman  dies,  or 
comes  to  grief,  there  will  be  a  fresh  struggle,  either  by  arms 
or  by  diplomacy,  between  England  and  Russia. 

The  English  within  the  last  few  years  have  established  a 
protectorate  over  Beloochistan.  Not  that  Beloochistan  is 
worth  anything,  —  for  it  is  as  sandy  as  the  bed  of  the  ocean, 
—  but  it  contains  a  place  called  Quetta ;  and  Quetta  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  back  door  to  the  possession  of  what  is  called 
the  key  of  India,  —  namely,  Herat. 

Who  shall  have  Herat  is  now  the  great  question  to  be  de- 
cided between  the  Russians  in  Central  Asia  and  the  British 
in  India.  The  English  have  no  desire  to  occupy  Herat. 
Their  wish  is  to  have  it  in  the  hands  of  an  ameer  of  Afgan- 
istan,  who  is  faithful  to  their  interests,  and  who  will  op- 
pose its  falling  into  the  power  or  under  the  influence  of 
Russia. 

Herat  lies  on  the  edge  of  northwestern  Afghanistan,  not 
far  from  the  frontier  of  Persia  and  south  of  the  Paropamisus 
range  of  mountains.  All  great  military  authorities  (Skobe- 
leff  in  his  latter  years  among  them)  seem  to  agree  in  regard- 
ing Herat  as  the  key  to  India.  Past  Herat  all  conquerors 
of  Hindoostan,  except  the  English,  have  come,  —  Alexander 
the  Great,  Timour  the  Tartar,  Yengis  Khan,  Nadir  Shah, 
and  all  the  rest.  "  It  is  a  city,"  says  a  Persian  geographer, 
"  that  has  been  fifty  times  taken,  fifty  times  destroyed,  and 
fifty  times  has  risen  from  its  ashes."  Though  the  oriental- 
ism of  the  statistics  of  the  Persian  makes  his  statement  in 
substance  untrue,  it  is  true  in  spirit.1  It  was  in  the  Middle 
Ages  the  route  of  all  caravans  from  the  west  to  the  east,  as 
well  as  of  all  armies.  Seven  hundred  years  ago  it  contained, 
according  to  the  records  of  that  period,  twelve  thousand 
retail  shops,  six  thousand  public  baths,  caravanseries,  and 
water-mills,  three  hundred  and  fifty  schools  and  Moham- 
1  Cf.  Blackwood's  Magazine. 


RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

medan  monastic  institutions,  and  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  thousand  occupied  houses.  The  country  surrounding 
it  is  marvellously  fertile  and  beautiful,  particularly  rich  in 
apple  and  plum  orchards.  Herat  is  no  longer  what  it  was ; 
but  it  still  commands  the  only  easy  road  running  through  a 
fertile  country  to  India.  This  road  passes  along  a  narrow 
strip  of  land  lying  between  deserts.  An  army  that  sets  out 
from  Herat  may  cross  Afghanistan  to  the  Bolan  Pass,  with- 
out experiencing  difficulties. 

Before  1879,  when  the  second  Cabul  massacre  took  place, 
and  before  Abdurahman  was  placed  upon  the  Afghan  throne, 
it  had  been  a  great  object  with  the  English  to  put  resident 
agents  into  Herat,  Cabul,  and  Candahar.  Shere  Ali,  then 
ruler  of  Afghanistan,  believed  in  a  coming  war  between 
England  and  Russia,  and  sat  on  the  fence  prepared  to 
drop  down  upon  the  winning  side.  Meantime  Skobeleff 
was  again  in  Tartary,  this  time  with  a  view  of  taking  Geok 
Tepi,  —  a  stronghold  in  which  the  Tekke-Turcomans  had 
shut  up  themselves  and  their  families.  This  place  had  suc- 
cessfully repulsed  one  Russian  army ;  but  Skobeleff  was  not 
to  be  resisted.  The  account  of  the  siege,  the  assault,  and 
the  sack  may  be  found  in  that  very  interesting  book,  — 
Alexander  Verestchagin's  "  At  Home  and  in  War."  Among 
the  followers  of  Skobeleff  was  a  young  man  of  Asiatic  birth, 
Ali  Khan  by  name,  who  entered  the  Russian  army  and 
Russianized  himself  into  Alikhanoff.  He  had  been  a  fa- 
vorite with  Skobeleff  in  the  war  of  1877;  but  one  day,  hav- 
ing lost  his  temper  in  a  quarrel,  he  challenged  his  superior 
officer,  was  reduced  to  the  ranks  as  a  punishment,  and  was 
sent  as  a  private  to  Turkestan.  Already  when  Skobeleff 
took  command  in  that  country  he  had  begun  to  rise 
again. 

AlikhanofTs  deeds  are  celebrated  in  that  war;  and  the 
great  ability  and  unscrupulous  audacity  he  showed  in  con- 
nection with  the  taking  of  Merv,  have  made  him  a  brilliant 
figure  among  Russian  military  heroes. 

Alikhanoff  may  be  said  to  have  captured  Merv  almost 


SIBERIA,   ETC.  319 

single-handed  for  the  Russians ;  and  now  outside  its  gates 
is  a  railway  station.  To  that  point  the  trans-Caspian  rail- 
road runs  south,  and  then  branches  off  to  take  a  course  as 
directly  east  as  possible  to  Samarcand.  From  Samarcand  it 
is  thought  probable  it  may  eventually  skirt  the  Chinese  fron- 
tier, and  enter  southern  Siberia. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  Merv  lies  only  three  hundred  miles 
north  of  Herat.1  The  Russians  are  endeavoring  by  every 
means  to  encroach  on  the  undefined  frontier  of  Afghanistan 
north  of  its  mountains  ;  and  most  probably  the  time  is  not  far 
distant  when  the  Russian  border  will  reach  the  Paropamisus 
range.  This  range  is  not  difficult  to  cross.  It  was  formerly 
supposed  to  be  so  ;  but  experience  has  proved  that  it  con- 
sists at  its  western  end  of  gently  sloping  hills.  By  this  road 
Russia,  when  she  is  ready,  can  approach  Herat,  and  (Herat 
in  her  hands)  can  march  toward  British  India.  An  army 
could  be  carried  from  St.  Petersburg  to  the  Volga.  Down 
the  Volga,  with  its  navy  of  steamboats,  the  troops  could 
float  two  thousand  miles  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  Things  have 
changed  upon  the  Caspian  since  1879,  when  Skobeleff  had 
his  army  ferried  across  it  in  barges.  There  is  now  an  im- 
mense fleet  on  the  Caspian,  called  into  being  by  the  petro- 
leum wells  of  Baku.  These  wells  have  come  into  knowledge 
just  in  time  to  supply  fuel  for  the  great  Central  Asiatic 
railroad. 

In  1888  the  railroad  was  opened  to  Samarcand.  It  is 
stupendous  to  think  of  it,  —  a  city  in  which  Queen  Schehe- 
razade placed  her  fairy-land  !  The  Tartars  of  that  district 
used  to  say  that,  unless  the  Franks  could  fly  faster  than  their 
horses,  and  could  bind  down  the  sands  of  their  deserts, 
that  region  could  never  be  subdued.  But  both  these  things 
have  been  done.  Nine  hundred  miles  of  rail  connect 
Krasnovodsk  on  the  Caspian  with  fairy  Samarcand,  which 
is  now  within  ten  days'  journey  from  St.  Petersburg.  Al- 
ready commerce  has  availed  itself  of  the  new  means  of 
transportation.  The  merchant  of  the  interior  no  longer 

1  Cf.  The  Russians  at  the  Gates  of  Herat. 


32O      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

travels  across  sandy  deserts  with  his  merchandise  on  camels, 
exposed  to  dangers  from  heat  and  cold  and  shifting  sands, 
and  above  all  from  bands  of  robbers  and  the  exactions  of 
local  rulers.  An  immense  trade  is  now  carried  on  between 
Central  Asia  and  Batoum,  —  a  port  on  the  Black  Sea,  ceded 
to  Russia  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  to  which  there  is  a  branch 
railroad,  connecting  it  with  the  trans- Caspian. 

In  a  very  interesting  paper  published  in  the  "  Nineteenth 
Century,"  1890,  by  Arminius  Vambe"ry,  the  distinguished 
Hungarian  traveller,  linguist,  and  professor,  he  comments 
on  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  Central  Asia  since, 
in  1863,  he  visited  the  regions,  now  traversed  by  the  rail- 
road, in  terror  of  his  life,  and  in  disguise.  He  was  then 
lame,  or  he  would  have  been  undoubtedly  captured  by  rob- 
bers, and  sold  as  a  slave.  He  travelled  in  a  pannier  slung  on 
a  camel's  back,  and  on  the  other  side,  to  balance  him,  was 
a  buffalo  calf.  He  tells  appalling  stories  of  the  slave  trade 
in  1863  carried  on  by  the  Tekke" -Turcomans.  The  slaves 
were  principally  Persians,  heretics  in  the  eyes  of  their  cap- 
tors. All  wore  heavy  chains.  The  domestic  slaves  had 
collars  by  which  they  were  pegged  down  at  night,  and  the 
tents  of  the  Turcomans  were  full  of  them. 

A  Turcoman  poet  living  at  the  close  of  the  last  century, 
in  one  of  his  poems  on  the  end  of  the  world,  made  this  re- 
markable prediction  :  "  Russia  will  be  the  power  that  will 
destroy  the  Moslem,  and  finally  Antichrist  shall  annihilate 
Russia." 

"  So  isolated  was  the  region  through  which  I  travelled  in 
1863,"  says  Vambe"ry,  "  that  on  my  return  the  shah  of  Per- 
sia and  his  ministers  made  the  most  anxious  inquiries  of 
me,  —  Central  Asia  seeming  to  be  to  them  as  unknown  as 
Japan  or  China.  .  .  .  Boundless  is  my  wonder  when  I  con- 
sider the  changes." 

And  yet,  among  the  things  introduced  by  "  civilization  in 
a  Russian  dress,"  are  three  that  were  unknown  in  1863 
among  the  "  Man-Stealers"  (the  Russian  name  for  Turco- 
mans) :  liquor,  gambling,  and  official  corruption. 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  $21 

The  Russians  are  not  bad  masters  at  first  to  the  nations 
they  annex  or  conquer.  It  being  impossible  at  once  to 
Russify  them  or  to  convert  them  to  orthodoxy,  they  are  suf- 
fered to  retain  their  own  manners  and  customs,  and  as  much 
as  possible  to  govern  themselves.  The  Russians  never  try 
to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  working  class,  or  to  cor- 
rect abuses.  What  is  custom  in  a  place  they  let  alone, 
however  bad  it  may  be.  Their  system  is  policy,  not  philan- 
thropy, and  they  do  what  is  rarely  done  by  the  English, 
they  assimilate  the  leading  men  and  make  them  Russians. 
The  Russian  army  is  full  of  Asiatics,  officers  and  gentlemen*, 
who  are  still  Mohammedans,  but  they  wear  the  Russian 
dress,  their  breasts  are  covered  with  Russian  orders,  and 
like  Ali  Khan  they  Russianize  their  names.  Under  English 
rule  no  Asiatic  becomes  an  Englishman. 

I  cannot  leave  the  subject  of  Russian  railroads  without 
alluding  to  the  terrible  experience  of  the  imperial  family 
on  October  29,  1888,  while  making  a  tour  in  southern 
Russia.  They  had  left  the  town  of  Borki  behind  them,  and 
were  in  the  midst  of  what  seemed  an  interminable  desert. 
There  were  several  carriages  on  the  train,  one  filled  with 
guards,  others  with  servants  and  officers  of  the  household. 

Suddenly  —  from  some  cause  that  the  public  has  never 
distinctly  known  —  a  terrible  wreck  of  the  train  took  place, 
perhaps  by  accident,  perhaps  by  design.  The  members  of 
the  imperial  family  were  not  seriously  hurt,  but  twenty-one 
persons  were  killed,  most  of  whom  were  soldiers  or  railroad 
employees. 

It  must  have  been  a  fearful  scene  to  the  empress  when 
she  found  herself  standing  in  that  desolate  waste,  in  the 
midst  of  the  dead,  wounded,  and  dying,  —  the  little  Grand 
Duchess  Xenia  clinging  to  her  father  with  cries  of,  "  Oh  ! 
they  are  coming  to  kill  you  !  They  will  kill  us  all !  "  And 
indeed,  had  that  been  the  purpose  of  hidden  enemies  they 
might  doubtless  have  accomplished  it,  as  the  czar  and  his 
family  stood  helpless  and  shelterless  in  the  midst  of  death 
and  desolation. 

21 


322      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

No  wonder  that  members  of  that  most  unhappy  race 
never  feel  themselves,  those  dear  to  them,  or  those  sur- 
rounding them,  safe  from  the  destroyer. 

This  continual  apprehension  of  a  danger  "  that  walketh  in 
darkness  "  is  upon  all  of  them,  and  has  a  deplorable  in- 
fluence on  the  sensitive  nervous  system  inherited  by  the 
Romanoffs  from  generation  to  generation. 

It  need  not  surprise  us  that  the  emperor,  seeing  a  young 
officer  approaching  him  with  his  hand  in  the  breast  of  his 
uniform,  at  once  thought  of  the  assassin  who  had  thus  rid- 
den up  to  his  grandfather  in  the  great  Square  of  St.  Isaac, 
and  drew  his  own  pistol. 

Can  we  wonder  that  he  flees  from  the  harmless  stranger 
who  lies  in  wait  for  him  with  a  camera ;  or  that  the  first  im- 
pression of  the  boy  czarevitch  when  a  Japanese  fanatic 
sprang  upon  him  was  that  his  assailant  was  a  Nihilist  con- 
vict, escaped  from  Saghalien? 

We  read  frequently  in  our  daily  papers  about  the  designs 
of  Russia  on  the  Pamirs.  The  Pamirs  are  great  plateaux  in 
that  part  of  the  Himalaya  Mountains  where  they  are  joined 
by  two  other  ranges,  the  Beloor  and  the  Kien-Lun.  This 
spot  has  been  called,  poetically,  the  Roof  of  the  World. 
The  Kien-Lun  and  Beloor  mountains  form  a  crescent  round 
the  western  portion  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  the  territory 
called  sometimes  Eastern  Turkestan,  and  known  in  earlier 
geographies  as  Chinese  Tartary. 

An  outlying  portion  of  Thibet,  called  Little  Thibet,  a 
region  infested  by  fierce  and  lawless  tribes,  lies  in  a  narrow 
valley  between  the  Kien-Lun  and  Himalaya  mountains 
directly  north  of  British  India. 

By  looking  at  a  map  of  British  India,  we  shall  see  that 
Hindostan  runs  to  a  point  at  the  north,  where  it  is  bounded 
by  mountains  which  shut  it  off  from  Afghanistan,  Little 
Thibet,  and  Eastern  Turkestan.  Directly  north  of  the  Kien- 
Lun  Mountains,  shortly  before  they  reach  the  meeting-point 
of  the  Roof  of  the  World,  lie  the  khanates  of  Kashgar  and 
Yarkand,  near  neighbors  to  Bokhara,  which  is  now  in  the 


SIBERIA,   ETC.  323 

possession  of  Russia.  At  present  Kashgar  and  Yarkand 
owe  a  doubtful  allegiance  to  the  emperor  of  China,  but 
Russia  advances  claims  to  them  as  former  possessions  of 
Bokhara. 

England,  Afghanistan,  and  China  are  all  united  in  resist- 
ing Russian  encroachments  in  this  direction ;  if  she  obtains 
possession  of  the  Pamirs  (vast  steppes  in  the  heart  of  that 
meeting-place  of  mountains)  she  will  have  great  advantages 
in  any  attack  she  may  plan  on  Afghanistan,  on  China,  or 
on  British  India.  By  entering  Afghanistan  on  the  north- 
east she  could,  if  she  were  at  war  with  England,  and  had 
secured  possession  of  Herat,  have  two  roads  which  would 
lead  her  to  the  Khyber  Pass  or  the  Bolan  by  which  to  enter 
Hindostan. 

Russia,  by  her  possession  of  Bokhara ;  China,  by  her  pos- 
session of  Yarkand  and  Kashgar ;  England,  by  her  posses- 
sion of  Cashmere,  Afghanistan  on  her  northern  boundary, 
and  the  strip  of  land  called  Little  Thibet,  —  seem  to  meet 
almost  at  the  same  point  on  the  northern  frontier  of  British 
India.  All  that  in  case  of  war  would  separate  the  English 
and  Russian  outposts  is  the  narrow  line  of  land  north  of 
the  Hindoo  Koosh,  claimed  by  Afghanistan,  and  inhab- 
ited by  turbulent  tribes  who  pay  to  the  ameer  a  doubtful 
homage.  This  is  why  Russia  and  China  are  contending 
for  possession  of  the  Pamirs,  and  why  England  and  Afghan- 
istan look  on  Russia's  success  in  that  direction  with  a 
jealous  eye. 

We  come  now  to  what  seems  to  me  the  most  flagrant 
abuse  of  Russian  power,  even  worse  than  the  revival  of  the 
policy  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  the  persecution  of  the  Jews. 
Comparatively  it  has  attracted  little  notice  in  Europe.  The 
Jews  have  at  least  some  protection  from  their  co-religion- 
ists, who  can  retaliate  on  their  oppressors  in  the  money 
markets  of  the  world ;  but  there  is  no  one  apparently  to 
lift  up  a  voice  of  remonstrance  for  the  Baltic  Provinces. 
Not  that  any  voice  of  remonstrance  from  the  West  would  be 
of  service.  The  czar,  as  we  know  already,  takes  refuge  in 


324      KUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX?"  CENTURY. 

the  firm  conviction  that  Russia  and  her  institutions  are 
destined  to  override  all  western  Europe,  and  meantime 
intrenches  himself  behind  that  dangerous  maxim  :  "  May  I 
not  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own?  " 

The  Baltic  Provinces  needed  no  coercion  to  confirm 
them  in  their  fidelity  to  the  czar.  Their  inhabitants  were 
among  his  most  loyal  and  attached  subjects ;  but  all  meth- 
ods are  being  resorted  to  to  establish  orthodoxy  and 
nationality  among  them;  the  government  is  resolved  to 
suppress  "their  Protestant  faith,  their  German  laws,  and 
their  national  customs :  and  to  supplant  them  by  the  faith 
of  the  orthodox  Church,  the  Russian  language,  and  above 
all  by  the  peculiar  system  of  the  village  tenure  of  land 
which  prevails  among  Slavonic  peoples."  l 

The  Baltic  Provinces  consist  of  three  distinct  nationali- 
ties :  Finland,  which  was  once  Swedish  ;  Courland,  Livland, 
and  Esthland,  which  were  German ;  and  Lithuania,  which 
was  Polish.  Together  they  form  the  western  boundary  of 
the  Russian  Empire ;  until  Russia  acquired  them  she  was 
simply  Muscovy,  a  barbaric  semi- Asiatic  power.  But  these 
provinces,  each  with  its  own  laws,  language,  history,  and 
customs,  are  as  strange  to  each  other  as  they  are  to  the  race 
that  has  incorporated  them. 

The  three  provinces,  Courland,  Livland,  and  Esthland 
(or  Courland,  Livonia,  and  Esthonia)  were  called  Hanse 
Provinces  in  the  sixteenth  century ;  but  three  centuries 
earlier  they  were  colonized  by  German  knights,  merchants, 
and  priests,  who  easily  established  their  supremacy  over 
the  native  Slavonian  peasantry.  The  knights  were  of  the 
Teutonic  order ;  before  long  disputes  arose  between  them 
and  the  bishops,  while  both  fought  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  free  cities  Riga,  Revel,  and  Dorpat.  By  these  quarrels 
they  so  weakened  themselves  that  in  the  days  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  when  Russia  had  grown  into  a  formidable  power, 
they  could  oppose  little  resistance  to  an  inroad  carried  on 
as  is  implied  by  the  very  name  of  the  invader. 

1  Edinburgh  Review. 


SIBERIA,   ETC.  $2$ 

Meantime  they  had  made  great  progress  in  prosperity 
and  civilization ;  but  so  terrible  was  the  destruction  wrought 
by  the  Russian  invasion  that  to  this  day  Livland  (or  Livo- 
nia) has  never  recovered  the  prosperity  she  enjoyed  up  to 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Sweden  and  Poland,  encouraged  by  the  unhappy  condi- 
tion of  the  Baltic  Provinces  when  the  Russians  had  retired 
after  their  raid,  stepped  in  to  take  possession  of  them. 
Finland  had  been  always  Swedish,  but  south  of  Finland  lay 
Esthland  (or  Esthonia)  which  gladly  placed  itself  under 
the  protection  of  the  Swedish  kings.  Courland  became  a 
vassal  duchy  of  Poland,  and  retained  its  quasi-independ- 
ence  till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  while  Livland 
(or  Livonia)  united  itself  by  a  solemn  treaty  to  Poland,  — 
a  treaty  by  which  its  people  conceived  they  had  secured  for- 
ever their  Lutheran  faith,  their  German  language,  and  inter- 
nal self-government. 

The  treaty,  however,  was  made  only  to  be  broken.  The 
effect  of  annexation  to  Poland  was  as  disastrous  as  the  in- 
vasion of  Ivan  the  Terrible  ;  but  Polish  oppression  did  not 
last  long.  Livland  was  made  over  to  Sweden,  and  under 
the  humane  rule  of  its  kings,  who  carefully  respected  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  their  new  subjects,  it  was  restored 
to  prosperity  and  civilization. 

This  lasted  until  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus ;  but 
one  of  his  successors  being  in  straits  for  money  "  ventured 
on  a  measure  which,  under  pretence  of  overhauling  the 
defective  titles  of  the  nobles  of  Livland  to  their  estates,  con- 
fiscated nearly  three  fifths  of  the  land  of  the  province  to 
the  Swedish  exchequer."  The  nobles  considering  them- 
selves oppressed  beyond  endurance,  sought  protection  from 
Peter  the  Great,  who  was  at  once  impressed  with  the  impor- 
tance which  the  extension  of  his  territories  along  the  shores 
of  the  Baltic  would  afford  to  his  new  empire. 

Sweden  in  1712  yielded  Livland  and  Esthland  to  her 
powerful  neighbor  by  treaty.  The  possession  of  these 
provinces  was  indeed  all  important  to  the  Russian  emperor ; 


326      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 


for  St.  Petersburg,  the  foundation  of  which  he  had  laid  in 
1703,  is  built  upon  the  soil  of  Esthland.  But  by  treaty 
Peter  renewed  for  himself  and  his  successors  an  engagement 
that  some  years  before  he  had  entered  into  with  the  Baltic 
Estates  to  acknowledge  and  to  respect  the  ascendency  of 
the  Lutheran  Church,  the  German  laws,  and  the  German 
language,  as  well  as  the  hereditary  institutions  of  the  land. 

After  the  final  partition  of  Poland,  Courland,  which  until 
then  had  been  a  quasi-independent  duchy,  was  reunited  to 
its  more  northerly  sister-provinces,  and  under  the  rule  of 
Alexander  I.  a  new  and  hopeful  epoch  for  the  Baltic 
Provinces  began.  For  fifty  years  (from  1795  to  l845) 
their  history  was  one  of  continued  peace  and  of  advancing 
prosperity.  As  knowledge  and  civilization  increased,  how- 
ever, the  chains  of  serfdom  weighed  heavily  upon  their 
peasantry,  until,  some  years  before  the  proclamation  of 
Alexander  II.  gave  liberty  to  all  other  Russian  serfs,  those 
in  Esthland  and  Livland  were  voluntarily  emancipated  by 
their  masters. 

"  Nowhere  in  his  vast  dominions  could  the  czar  boast  of 
more  faithful  subjects  than  in  the  Baltic  Provinces,  so  long 
as  the  Russian  government  respected  their  acknowledged 
rights  and  hereditary  customs.  Their  nobility  furnished 
the  Russian  army  and  diplomacy  with  the  ablest  of  their 
generals  and  ambassadors.  The  names  of  Lieven,  Rosen, 
Pahlen,  Brunnow,  Kriidener,  and  others  are  inseparable 
from  Russian  history." 

But  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  the  triune 
maxim  of  autocracy,  orthodoxy,  and  nationality  began  to 
make  itself  felt  in  attacks  upon  the  peculiar  institutions  of 
Finland  and  the  Baltic  Provinces. 

Under  Alexander  II.,  who  was  personally  attached  to  his 
Finns,  and  to  the  people  of  his  provinces  upon  the  Baltic, 
they  recovered  heart  and  hope.  Alexander  restored  the 
old  Swedish  constitution  to  Finland,  and  Poland,  when  he 
first  came  to  the  throne,  was  granted  a  provisional  govern- 
ment under  a  national  minister.  Courland,  Esthonia,  and 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  327 

Livonia,  however,  had  not  yet  shared  in  Alexander's  political 
reforms,  —  probably  because  he  was  anxious  to  extend  his 
land-system  to  the  already  emancipated  serfs,  —  when  the 
Polish  revolution  broke  out,  in  1863,  and  checked  the 
reforming  enthusiasm  of  the  Emperor-liberator.  In  order 
to  punish  the  Polish  nobility,  to  depress  them  as  much  as 
possible,  and  to  raise  up  enemies  against  them  among  their 
own  peasantry,  the  village  community  system  (the  Mir) 
was  forced  on  Poland.  An  intense  hatred  of  things  Ger- 
man became  in  Russia  tantamount  to  patriotism.  The 
Moscow  "  Gazette  "  declared  that  the  time  was  passed  when 
Russia  could  play  at  liberalism  and  cosmopolitanism.  The 
duty  of  every  Russian  was  to  serve  the  State.  Freedom 
without  a  country  was  an  empty  phantom.  "  It  is  foolish," 
cried  the  editor  Katkoff,  "  to  speak  of  the  future  world-wide 
sway  of  a  Pan-Slavonic  empire,  and  to  break  into  ruins  that 
State  which  is  the  sole  representative  of  Slavonic  ideas." 

So  "  Russia  for  the  Russians  "  was  the  war-cry,  and  to 
be  a  true  Russian  it  is  necessary  to  belong  to  the  orthodox 
Church,  for  not  to  acknowledge  the  Russian  czar  as  spiri- 
tual as  well  as  temporal  autocrat,  is,  in  a  Russian  subject, 
treason. 

As  soon  as  Alexander  III.  came t into  power  the  cry  was  : 
Recovery  of  the  original  Russian  character  of  Lithuanian 
lands,  the  re-establishment  of  the  Russian  peasants  in  the 
Baltic  Provinces  in  their  rights  as  legitimate  possessors  of 
the  soil,  of  which  they  were  deprived  five  hundred  years 
before  by  Teutonic  knights  and  German  traders.  The  whole 
power  of  the  government  has  ever  since  been  directed  to  the 
annihilation  of  all  non- Russian  institutions  in  the  empire, 
and  the  establishment  of  one  compact  Russian  peasant 
State. 

As  year  after  year  goes  on  the  pressure  becomes  stronger 
against  the  Lutheran  religion,  the  German  language,  the 
political  privileges,  and  the  hereditary  customs  of  the  Baltic 
Provinces.  And  it  is  especially  true  that  in  these  provinces 
the  ruthless  cruelty  and  unrelenting  perseverance  with  which 
subordinates  in  Russia  carry  out  the  designs  of  their  master 


328       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

are  best  shown.  Roman  Catholic  churches  on  the  smallest 
pretence  have  been  pulled  down,  Lutheran  churches  closed, 
and  Baptist  meeting-houses  suppressed.  To  convert  an 
orthodox  believer  to  another  faith,  or  to  any  heresy,  in- 
volves deportation  to  Siberia  for  the  converter  and  the 
converted.  Those  who  have  joined  the  orthodox  Church, 
as  many  peasants  in  the  Baltic  Provinces  did  at  one  time 
from  interested  motives,  are,  if  they  relapse,  most  severely 
dealt  with. 

"  Edicts,"  says  Mr.  Lanin,  "  have  been  issued,  some  clauses 
of  which,  if  fairly  carried  out,  would  banish  to  Siberia  the 
apostles  themselves,  —  nay,  One  greater  than  the  apostles, — 
were  He  or  they  to  return  to  this  earth  and  preach  in  the 
dominions  of  the  czar.  .  .  .  The  possession  of  absolute  truth  is 
said  by  historians  to  render  people  intolerant,  and  what  the 
uninitiated  might  call  cruel.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Alexander 
III.  believes  himself  in  possession  of  absolute  truth,  and  his 
religion  runs  into  his  politics,  his  politics  into  his  religion. 
Besides  his  persecution  of  the  Jews,  he  is  bitterly  severe  on 
Catholics,  thousands  of  whom  in  Lithuania  he  has  compelled 
to  embrace  the  State  religion  on  the  ground  that  their  grand- 
fathers or  great-grandfathers  were  members  of  that  church, 
and  could  never  have  acquired  a  right  to  abandon  it.  The 
czar  is  pursuing  the  Baptists  and  the  Stundists  with  a  degree 
of  refined  cruelty  compared  with  which  Louis  XIV. 's  persecu- 
tion of  the  Huguenots,  if  we  closely  examine  it,  was  humane. 
And  firmly  convinced  that  all  these  acts  are  the  embodiment  of 
the  will  of  the  Almighty,  his  astonishment  is  extreme  at  the 
indignation  they  arouse  in  the  civilized  world.  .  .  .  Alexander 
III.  is  not  one  whit  less  obedient  to  the  voice  of  his  conscience 
than  was  Archbishop  Laud  or  Oliver  Cromwell." l 

Such  being  Alexander  III.'s  feeling  against  his  fellow- 
Christians,  can  we  wonder  at  his  animus  against  the  Jews? 
—  especially  as  the  persecutors  of  the  Jews,  taking  advantage 
of  the  death 2  of  their  protector  Alexander  II.  (called  in 
Poland  the  "  Jew  Emperor  "),  broke  into  riots  and  outrages 
immediately  on  the  accession  of  a  new  czar. 

1  Contemporary  Review. 

2  There  were  Jews  concerned  in  his  cruel  assassination. 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  329 

In  accordance  with  the  fourth  clause  of  the  will  of  Peter 
the  Great,  which  recommends  his  successors  to  maintain 
agents  who  shall  intrigue  in  foreign  courts  and  among 
foreign  peoples  to  promote  the  interests  of  Russia,  there 
are  Russian  political  missionaries  at  work  wherever  Slavonic 
ideas  are  likely  to  take  root  if  planted.  Those  who  do 
this  work  are  officially  called  missionaries.  They  are  not 
unknown  even  in  the  United  States,  where  men  out  of  favor 
with  their  government  have  been  sent  from  time  to  time  to 
earn  their  pardon  by  creating  a  public  opinion  favorable  to 
Russia.  But  the  chief  fields  of  this  "  missionary  "  work  are 
in  Servia  and  the  Balkan  principalities,  in  the  outlying 
Slavonic  appendages  to  the  Hungarian  kingdom,  and  among 
the  Slavs  (or  Czechs)  of  Bohemia.  The  unrest  that  we 
read  of  in  these  countries,  and  among  the  Afghans  and 
Armenians,  is  due  in  large  part  to  the  efforts  of  these  agents 
to  impress  on  all  malcontents  that  they  have  a  sympathiz- 
ing friend  in  Russia.  One  duty  of  these  "  missionaries  " 
for  the  past  dozen  years  has  been  to  create  strong  popular 
feeling  against  the  Jews. 

From  what  we  have  already  said  of  the  present  Emperor 
Alexander  we  can  feel  at  once  how  sincere  must  be  his 
desire  to  rid  orthodox  Russia  of  an  alien  nationality  and 
an  unorthodox  religion. 

The  murder  of  his  father,  who  was  supposed  to  protect 
the  Jews,  was  soon  followed  by  outbreaks  of  peasant  hate 
against  them  all  over  the  provinces  of  Southern  Russia. 
National  anti-Semitic  fanaticism  was  intensified  by  hopes 
of  gain ;  for  a  report  was  current,  set  on  foot  it  is  believed 
by  secret  agents,  that  the  czar  countenanced  the  plunder 
of  the  Jews,  and  had  given  his  orthodox  subjects  their 
property.  But  loss  of  property  was  of  little  moment,  com- 
pared with  outrages  that  have  been  thus  enumerated  by  a 
correspondent  of  the  London  "Times":  — 

"  Men  murdered,  tender  infants  dashed  to  death,  or  roasted 
alive  in  their  own  homes,  girls  violated  in  the  sight  of  their 
relatives  by  soldiers,  who  should  have  been  the  guardians  of 


33O      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

their  honor;  for  during  scenes  of  murder  and  of  pillage  the 
local  authorities  everywhere  have  stood  by  with  folded  arms, 
doing  little  or  nothing  to  prevent  their  occurrence  or  recurrence, 
and  allowing  the  ignorant  peasantry  to  remain  under  the  impres- 
sion that  a  ukase  existed  ordering  the  property  of  Jews  to  be 
handed  over  to  their  fellow-Russians.  Indeed,  in  one  place  the 
mayor  read  a  copy  of  the  supposed  ukase  to  his  fellow-citizens, 
and  a  riot  would  have  ensued  had  not  the  village  priest  done 
his  duty,  and  declared  his  belief  that  no  such  ukase  existed." 

In  one  province,  where  a  flourishing  agricultural  settle- 
ment of  Jews  had  been  established  for  forty  years,  the  mob 
was  led  by  men  dressed  as  police  officers,  who  produced  a 
document  purporting  to  be  the  spoliation  proclamation  of 
the  czar.  In  this  place  the  farm  implements  were  all 
destroyed,  and  five  hundred  cattle  and  ten  thousand  sheep 
were  driven  away.  In  one  village  "  the  Jews  adroitly  turned 
the  supposed  ukase  of  the  czar  into  a  safeguard.  Hearing 
that  the  rioters  were  advancing  to  the  attack,  they  brought 
the  keys  of  their  houses  to  their  Christian  neighbors,  saying 
that  if  the  ukase  was  true  it  would  be  better  that  neighbors 
should  have  their  property  than  the  rioters ;  and  if  the  ukase 
proved  to  be  untrue  of  course  their  good  neighbors  would 
return  the  keys.  The  Christians  of  the  village  accordingly 
repulsed  the  rioters,  and  in  a  few  days  the  Jews  were  again 
in  possession  of  their  property." 

By  early  summer  in  1881,  a  few  months  after  the  death 
of  Alexander  II.,  the  chief  towns  and  villages  of  southern 
Russia  were  ablaze  with  violence  and  riot.  Whenever 
arrests  were  made,  after  the  work  of  destruction  was 
completed  (never  before;  for  until  the  rioters  had  done 
their  worst  the  authorities  do  not  seem  to  have  interfered 
with  the  work  that  was  going  on),  Jews  were  among  those 
who  were  put  in  prison,  charged  with  carrying  revolvers 
without  a  permit,  to  defend  their  homes. 

The  excitement  spread  even  to  the  Caspian  Sea  and  to 
Siberia.  As  late  as  November  the  myth  of  the  spoliation 
ukase  encouraged  all  outrages. 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  331 

Not  content  with  riot,  the  "  red  cock "  that  summer 
crowed  over  forty-one  towns  inhabited  by  Jews,  twenty 
thousand  of  whom  were  rendered  homeless.  The  "  red 
cock "  is  the  proverbial  expression  used  by  the  Russian 
moujik  for  the  work  of  the  incendiary.  The  value  of  Jew- 
ish property  that  summer  destroyed  in  southern  Russia,  by 
arson  and  by  pillage,  has  been  estimated  at  eighty  million 
dollars. 

These  outrages  were  recorded  for  us  in  telegrams  twelve 
years  ago,  as  similar  horrors  are  in  1893.  "  A  violent  out- 
break against  the  Jews  took  place  at "  Lipsk,  Pinsk,  or  else- 
where. And  that  is  all  we  hear  of  them. 

"  The  municipalities,"  says  the  "  Times  "  in  its  issue  of  Jan. 
13,  1882,  "with  the  connivance  of  the  local  governments,  have 
added  to  the  misery  of  the  situation.  With  rough  logic  they 
have  argued  that,  as  these  riots  were  directed  against  the  Jews, 
if  there  had  been  no  Jews  there  would  have  been  no  riots. 
They  accordingly  petitioned  the  governors  of  their  provinces  to 
issue  orders  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  towns  in  which 
they  had  no  legal  right  of  domicile.  The  Jews  in  Russia  are 
only  allowed  to  reside  in  twenty-eight  provinces,  often  only  in 
certain  towns ;  and  the  number  of  persons  to  reside  is  (at  least 
theoretically)  limited.  During  Alexander  II.'s  reign,  however, 
these  laws  had  been  somewhat  allowed  to  fall  into  desuetude ; 
and  many  Jews  had  ventured  beyond  the  limits  assigned  them. 
But  leaving  aside  the  general  question,  it  was  a  most  heartless 
act  to  add  to  the  miseries  of  the  Jewish  population  at  the  moment 
when  the  mob  was  eagerly  scanning  the  disposition  of  the  au- 
thorities to  discover  to  what  lengths  they  might  proceed  with 
impunity." 

Nevertheless,  this  was  the  view  taken  by  the  czar's  reac- 
tionary minister,  General  Ignatieff,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  put  in  office  to  reverse  the  policy  of  Loris  Melikoff,  and 
to  abridge  as  much  as  possible  all  privileges  granted  by  the 
late  czar.  Nothing  whatever  was  done  by  government  to 
protect  the  Jews  or  to  suppress  the  riots ;  but  after  May 
23,  when  a  deputation  of  the  Jews  of  St.  Petersburg,  headed 
by  Baron  Gunzberg,  waited  on  the  czar,  Alexander  III. 


332       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY, 

expressed  his  intention  of  dealing  with  the  evil ;  and  the 
result  was  that  on  September  3  the  following  edict  was 
issued,  which  simply  tended  to  aggravate  the  situation.  I 
give  the  larger  part  of  it  intact,  because  it  is  the  keynote  to 
the  policy  which  has  been  ever  since  pursued  in  Russia,  and 
which  has  culminated  in  that  expulsion  of  the  Jews  about 
which  at  present  we  know  so  little,  but  which  has  filled  all 
western  Europe  and  America  with  horror  :  — 

"  For  some  time  the  government  has  given  its  attention  to 
the  Jews  and  to  their  relations  to  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  empire,  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  the  sad  condition  of 
the  Christian  inhabitants  brought  about  by  the  conduct  of  the 
Jews  in  business  matters. 

"  For  the  last  twenty  years  the  government  has  endeavored  in 
various  ways  to  bring  the  Jews  near  to  its  other  inhabitants, 
and  has  given  them  almost  equal  rights  with  the  indigenous 
population.  The  movements,  however,  against  the  Jews,  which 
began  last  spring  in  the  south  of  Russia  and  extended  to  central 
Russia,  prove  incontestably  that  all  its  endeavors  have  been  of 
no  avail,  and  that  ill-feeling  prevails  now  as  much  as  ever  be- 
tween the  Jewish  and  the  Christian  inhabitants  of  those  parts. 
Now,  the  proceedings  at  the  trial  of  those  charged  with  rioting, 
and  other  evidence,  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  main  cause 
of  these  movements  and  riots,  to  which  the  Russians  as  a  nation 
are  strangers,  was  but  a  commercial  one,  and  is  as  follows :  — 

"  During  the  last  twenty  years  the  Jews  have  gradually  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  not  only  every  trade  and  business  in  all 
its  branches,  but  also  of  a  great  part  of  the  land  by  buying  or 
farming  it.  With  few  exceptions,  they  have  as  a  body  devoted 
their  attention,  not  to  enriching  or  benefiting  the  country,  but  to 
defrauding  by  their  wiles  its  inhabitants,  and  particularly  its 
poor  inhabitants.  This  conduct  of  theirs  has  called  forth  pro- 
tests on  the  part  of  the  people,  as  manifested  in  acts  of  violence 
and  robbery.  The  government,  while  on  the  one  hand  doing  its 
best  to  put  down  the  disturbances,  and  to  deliver  the  Jews  from 
oppression  and  slaughter,  have  also,  on  the  other  hand,  thought 
it  a  matter  of  urgency  and  justice  to  adopt  stringent  measures 
in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the  oppression  practised  by  the  Jews 
on  the  inhabitants,  and  to  free  the  country  from  their  malprac- 
tices, which  were,  as  is  known,  the  cause  of  the  agitation." 


SIBERIA,  ETC.  333 

With  this  view  commissions  were  appointed,  and  encour- 
aged to  report  as  unfavorably  to  the  Jews  as  possible  on  their 
trades,  the  extent  of  their  farming,  their  usury,  and  liquor 
dealing. 

There  is  no  word  of  reprimand  to  those  who  had  indulged 
themselves  (not  in  isolated  cases,  but  in  whole  districts)  in 
rape,  murder,  and  rapine.  The  document  showed  clearly 
to  the  populace  that  the  government  shared  their  prejudices 
against  the  Jews. 

When  the  governor  of  Warsaw  was  ordered  to  publish 
this  circular,  he  at  first  refused,  saying  that  Jews  and  Poles 
had  always  lived  on  such  friendly  terms  that  no  commission 
to  inquire  into  their  relations  seemed  necessary.  He  was, 
however,  forced  to  publish  the  rescript ;  and  the  result  was 
a  frightful  rising  against  the  Jews  at  Christmas,  three  months 
after.  Three  hundred  houses  and  six  hundred  shops  in  War- 
saw were  pillaged  and  devastated,  and  thousands  of  victims 
were  rendered  homeless,  and  reduced  to  beggary. 

"  In  the  first  place,"  says  the  "  Times,"  "  the  riot  at  Warsaw 
was  clearly  planned,  an  alarm  of  fire  being  simultaneously  raised 
in  at  least  two  places,  and  the  mob  being  directed  by  men  who 
spoke  Polish  with  a  Russian  accent.  The  culpable  neglect  of 
the  military  authorities  in  refusing  to  make  use  of  the  twenty 
thousand  men  forming  the  garrison,  finds  its  counterpart  in  the 
similar  behavior  of  other  governors  earlier  in  the  year.  The 
behavior  of  the  police,  who  are  described  as  only  interfering  to 
prevent  the  Jews  from  protecting  themselves,  tallies  with  their 
behavior  elsewhere.  And  finally  the  attempts  that  were  made 
by  telegraph  officials  and  others  to  prevent  the  true  state  of  the 
case  from  reaching  the  rest  of  Europe  may  serve  to  account  for 
the  fact  that  the  enormities  of  the  past  nine  months  have  only 
found  the  faintest  echo  in  the  press  of  Europe." 

And  even  so  it  is  now.  It  is  impossible  to  give  anything 
like  an  historical  account  of  what  is  going  on  in  Russia  in 
relation  to  the  Jews,  or  what  has  been  going  on  there  for 
the  past  two  years ;  indeed,  from  the  time  the  document  I 
have  quoted  was  put  forth,  the  government  has  steadily 


334    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

acted  on  its  spirit.  Neither  concerning  the  expulsion  and 
persecution  of  the  three  million  Jews  in  Russia,  nor  of  the 
famine,  nor  of  the  cholera,  can  anything  reliable  as  yet  be 
told.  We  can  only  read  brief  newspaper  reports  and  tele- 
grams ;  and  by  the  faint  light  that  streams  down  to  us  from 
events  that  took  place  a  dozen  years  ago,  can  form  some 
idea  of  the  present  situation. 

Under  M.  Probedonostzeff,  now  minister  of  worship,  a 
man  whose  influence  for  the  past  eight  years  has  almost 
overshadowed  the  throne,  —  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  all 
religious  persecutions  undertaken  at  his  instigation  will  be 
carried  on  with  redoubled  vigor.  "  It  is  Pob£donostzeff," 
says  a  writer  in  1892,  "  who  keeps  alive  in  the  czar  the  idea 
that  he  is  the  anointed  of  the  Lord,  the  representative  of 
God  upon  earth ;  and  that  the  population  of  his  endless 
empire  only  exists  to  obey  his  will." 

Yet  the  czar  has  no  love  for  greatness ;  he  conscientiously 
believes  that  the  duties  of  his  position  have  been  thrust  upon 
him ;  and  sees  in  himself  a  Joshua  commanded  to  purge  a 
land  that  is  holy  of  all  but  the  race  to  whom  its  destinies 
have  by  Providence  been  committed.  He  will  exterminate 
by  modern  methods  all  misbelievers  in  Holy  Russia,  even  as 
the  people  of  Jericho  or  Ai  were  put  to  the  sword. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SULTAN   ABDUL    HAMID. 

T  HAVE  told  the  history  of  the  war  between  Russia  and 
•*•  Turkey,  which  had  its  origin  in  the  Bulgarian  massa- 
cres, perpetrated  during  the  last  months  of  Abdul  Aziz's 
reign.  These  massacres  were  chiefly  due  to  the  obstinacy, 
the  supineness,  or  the  incapacity  of  the  grand  vizier, 
Mohammed  Nedim  Pasha,  who,  strange  to  say,  was  at  that 
very  time  the  close  ally  of  the  Russian  ambassador,  General 
Ignatieff,  and  indeed  it  has  always  been  believed  that  he 
accepted  pay  for  his  influence  in  favor  of  Russia. 

It  needed  no  foresight  to  tell  what  would  be  the  result 
of  arming  all  Mussulmans  in  Bulgaria,  at  the  same  time 
that  all  men  in  the  Christian  villages  were  disarmed.  Nor, 
when  outrages  began,  would  the  grand  vizier  suffer  regular 
troops  to  be  sent  into  the  disturbed  districts,  where  Pom- 
acks,  Bashi-Bazouks  and  Circassians  were  falling  with  fury 
on  the  defenceless  population. 

Pomacks  are  renegade  Slavs ;  the  Circassians,  as  we 
know,  were  Mohammedan  mountaineers  from  the  Caucasus, 
to  whom  in  1869  Abdul  Aziz  offered  an  asylum ;  and  Bashi- 
Bazouks  were  an  irregular  corps  composed  of  outcasts  of  all 
nations,  ready  for  any  deviltry,  and  keen  for  plunder.  It 
was  not  the  Turks  who  murdered  their  Christian  neighbors, 
but  men  of  alien  races,  all  of  whom,  however,  professed  the 
Moslem  faith. 

The  Turkish  Empire  is  said  to  be  composed  of  nineteen 
nationalities,  each  and  all  antagonistic  to  one  another ;  and 
at  the  very  moment  when  America  and  western  Europe 
were  filled  with  excitement,  arising  from  reports  of  the 


336     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

atrocities  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  a  revolution  was 
taking  place  in  the  palace  of  the  sultan,  the  details  of  which 
have  excited  very  little  interest,  partly  because  in  the  end 
it  proved  abortive,  and  partly  because  what  public  attention 
could  be  given  to  Turkey  was  soon  absorbed  by  accounts 
of  the  Russian  War. 

Something  about  this  project  of  reform  has  been  related 
in  the  chapter  called  "  Four  Sultans."  Its  leader  was  Midhat 
Pasha,  the  third  great  Turkish  statesman  of  modern  times. 
The  two  others,  Fuad  Pasha  and  Aali  Pasha,  happily  for 
themselves,  died  natural  deaths  in  1871  ;  for  Midhat  was 
reserved  detraction,  disappointment,  exile,  and  eventually 
poison.  He  had  been  appointed  by  Abdul  Medjid  governor- 
general  of  the  province  of  Rustchuk  on  the  Danube,  and  he 
was  spoken  of  to  Sir  Henry  Elliot,  English  ambassador  at 
Constantinople  from  1867  to  1877,  in  the  following  terms: 
"  He  is  a  man  wholly  unlike  the  ordinary  Turkish  vali.  He 
has  been  doing  all  in  his  power  to  develop  the  province, 
establishing  schools,  making  roads,  encouraging  industries, 
and  giving  security  to  life  and  property  by  a  firm  and  impar- 
tial administration  of  justice." 

When  Fuad  and  Aali  died,  within  six  months  of  each 
other,  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz,  who  had  not  dared  to  rid  himself 
of  their  control,  congratulated  himself  on  being,  at  last,  out 
of  leading-strings. 

Midhat  was  head  of  what  was  called  the  party  of  Young 
Turkey,  and  was  a  man  of  so  much  influence  that  his  rival, 
Mohammed  Nedim  did  not  dare  openly  to  get  rid  of  him. 
For  three  years  (from  1872  to  1875)  a  struggle  was  carried 
on  between  them.  From  time  to  time  Midhat  would  ven- 
ture to  remonstrate  with  the  sultan,  sometimes  to  some 
purpose,  generally  with  no  effect.  By  degrees,  —  at  times 
in  power,  but  more  often  in  disgrace,  —  he  matured  his 
plans.  In  1875  ne  detailed  them  thus  to  the  English 
ambassador :  — 

"  The  sultan's  empire  is  being  rapidly  brought  to  destruction ; 
corruption  has  reached  a  pitch  that  it  has  never  before  attained  ; 


MIDHAT  PASHA. 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HA  MID.  337 

the  service  of  the  State  is  starved  while  untold  millions  are 
being  poured  into  the  palace,  and  the  provin'ces  are  being 
ruined  by  the  uncontrolled  exactions  of  the  governors,  who  pur- 
chase their  appointments  at  the  palace ;  and  nothing  can  save 
the  country  but  a  complete  change  of  system." 

The  only  remedy  that  Midhat  could  perceive  lay,  first,  in 
securing  a  control  over  the  sovereign  by  making  the  minis- 
ters —  especially  as  regarded  the  finances  —  responsible  to 
a  national  popular  assembly;  secondly,  in  making  this 
assembly  truly  national  by  doing  away  with  all  distinctions 
of  classes  and  religions,  and  by  placing  the  Christians  upon 
a  footing  of  entire  equality  with  the  Mohammedans ;  thirdly 
by  decentralization,  and  by  the  establishment  of  provincial 
control  over  the  governors. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  told  all  the  details  of  the 
actual  outbreak,  a  year  later,  in  the  autumn  of  1875.  The 
word  "  constitution  "  was  by  that  time  in  everybody's  mouth, 
but  it  being  reasonable  to  expect  that  the  sultan's  views  on 
the  subject  would  be  obstinate  and  obstructive,  the  hopes  of 
the  reformers  turned  to  Prince  Murad,  the  heir  presumptive, 
who  it  was  known  was  prepared  to  grant  a  constitution,  and 
to  inaugurate  reform.  We  know  already  how  the  conspiracy 
of  reform  was  carried  out.  On  May  30,  1876,  when  war 
was  going  on  with  Servia,  and  when  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
were  in  insurrection,  the  empire  was  in  the  utmost  peril. 
Abdul  Aziz  was  made  prisoner  and  Murad  V.  proclaimed, 
amidst  general  and  apparently  heartfelt  expressions  of 
rejoicing.  We  know  also  how  Murad's  nerves  proved 
unable  to  bear  the  strain  and  excitement  of  the  revolution 
in  his  favor,  and  how  his  mind  gave  way  when  he  found 
himself  only  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  his  ministers. 

Having  related  at  some  length  the  story  of  the  suicide  of 
Abdul  Aziz,  I  should  not  recur  to  it  here  were  it  not  that 
it  had  subsequently  its  influence  on  the  fate  of  Midhat 
Pasha ;  and  it  may  be  well  to  draw  attention  to  what  has 
been  said  of  it  by  Sir  Henry  Elliot,  because  in  magazine  ar- 
ticles up  to  the  present  day,  doubts  have  been  cast  upon  the 

22 


338       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

manner  of  Abdul  Aziz's  death,  and  because  a  trial  of  two 
men,  a  wrestler  and  a  gardener,  was  gotten  up  by  the 
camarilla  that  desired  the  complete  destruction  of  Midhat 
Pasha,  then  an  exile  in  Arabia.  The  wrestler  and  the  gar- 
dener confessed  that  they  had  been  hired  by  Hussein  Avni 
and  Midhat  Pasha  to  slay  the  deposed  sultan.  These  men, 
(supposing  them  to  be  guilty)  were  never  punished  for  the 
regicide ;  but  the  death  of  Midhat,  and  the  closer  confine- 
ment of  ex-Sultan  Murad,  quickly  followed  their  supposed 
confession.  Sir  Henry  Elliot  says  :  — 

"When,  on  the  morning  of  June  4,  1877,  five  days  after  his 
deposition,  it  was  announced  that  Abdul  Aziz  had  committed 
suicide  by  opening  the  veins  of  his  arms  with  a  pair  of  scissors, 
there  was  probably  not  a  person  who  doubted,  any  more  than  I 
did  myself,  that  he  had  in  reality  been  a  victim  of  assassination ; 
and  my  suspicion  of  foul  play  was  only  removed  in  the  course 
of  the  forenoon  by  the  report  of  Dr.  Dickson,  the  embassy 
physician,  who  made  me  acquainted  with  particulars  and  details 
which  up  to  this  time  (1888)  have  been  to  the  general  public 
almost,  if  not  entirely,  unknown. 

"  Dr.  Dickson  was  a  man  of  great  intelligence,  of  long  expe- 
rience in  many  parts  of  the  East,  where  he  had  seen  much  of 
the  secret  and  dark  doings  of  the  harems.  He  was  of  a  sus- 
picious rather  than  a  confiding  character,  little  likely  to  shut  his 
eyes  to  any  evidence  of  a  crime ;  and  he  certainly  would  not 
have  concealed  it  from  me,  his  ambassador,  if  he  had  enter- 
tained even  the  remotest  doubt  upon  the  case. 

"  Dr.  Dickson  came  to  me  at  Therapia  straight  from  an 
examination  of  the  body,  and  declared  in  the  most  positive 
manner  that  there  was  not  a  doubt  in  his  mind  that  it  was  a 
case  of  suicide,  and  that  all  suspicion  of  assassination  must  be 
discarded.  He  told  me  that,  early  in  the  morning,  he  had 
received  a  summons  from  the  government,  inviting  him  to  go  to 
the  palace  to  examine  the  body  of  the  ex-sultan,  and  to  ascer- 
tain the  cause  of  his  death.  All  the  principal  medical  men  in 
Constantinople  had  received  a  similar  invitation,  which  eighteen 
or  nineteen,  including  those  of  several  of  the  embassies,  with 
Turkish,  Greek,  and  Armenian  physicians,  had  accepted.  « 

"  Besides  these,  there  was  another  English  doctor,  an  old  Dr. 
Millingen,  the  same  who  was  with  Lord  Byron  when  he  died  at 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAM  ID. 


339 


Missolonghi,  and  who  had  ever  since  remained  in  the  East,  and 
was  a  medical  attendant  on  the  ladies  of  the  imperial  harem. 

"  He  and  Dr.  Dickson  went  together  to  the  palace,  but  found 
on  their  arrival  that  the  other  doctors  had  finished  their  exami- 
nation ;  and  Dickson  told  me  that  he  and  Millingen,  being  thus 
left  alone,  had  made  as  complete  an  examination  of  the  body  as 
it  was  possible  to  make.  He  told  me  that  they  had  turned  it 
over,  and  looked  minutely  at  every  part  of  it,  to  see  what  traces 
of  violence  could  be  found  upon  it,  but  there  were  absolutely 
none,  with  the  exception  of  cuts  in  both  arms,  partly  severing 
the  arteries,  from  which  the  sultan  had  bled  to  death.  The 
skin,  he  said,  was  more  wonderfully  delicate  than  he  had  ever 
seen  in  a  full  grown  person,  and  was  more  like  the  skin  of  a 
child,  but  there  was  not  a  scratch,  mark,  or  bruise  on  any  part 
of  it ;  and  he  declared  that  it  was  perfectly  impossible  that  the 
force  that  would  have  been  required  to  hold  so  powerful  a  man 
could  have  been  employed  without  leaving  visible  marks.  The 
artery  of  one  arm  was  almost  entirely,  and  that  of  the  other 
partially,  severed ;  the  wound  being  such,  in  Dickson's  opinion, 
as  would  be  made,  not  by  a  knife,  but  by  sharp-pointed  scissors, 
with  little  cuts,  or  snips,  running  in  the  direction  that  would  be 
expected  in  the  case  of  a  man  inflicting  them  on  himself. 

"  He  had  therefore  no  hesitation  in  accepting  as  correct  the 
account  that  had  been  given  of  the  manner  of  the  sultan's 
death.  The  wounds,  moreover,  if  not  made  by  himself,  must 
have  been  made  from  behind,  by  some  one  leaning  over  his 
chair,  where  no  one  could  have  taken  up  his  position  without  a 
struggle,  of  which  traces  must  have  remained,  or  without  noise, 
which  must  certainly  have  been  heard  in  the  adjoining  room,  in 
which  the  ladies  were  collected.  It  further  appeared  that 
when  the  sultan  was  seated  in  the  chair  in  which  the  pools  of 
blood  proved  him  to  have  bled  to  death,  the  back  of  his  head 
could  be  seen  by  the  women,  who  were  watching  at  a  flanking 
window  in  the  next  room,  and  to  whom  any  one  getting  behind 
the  chair  would  be  distinctly  visible. 

"  From  all  this  Dr.  Dickson  and  Dr.  Millingen  concluded,  as 
I  have  said,  without  hesitation,  that  the  sultan  had  destroyed 
himself ;  and  when  they  went  out  and  joined  the  other  physi- 
cians who  had  examined  the  body  before  their  arrival,  they 
found  that  they  also  were  unanimous  in  arriving  at  the  same 
opinion.  Among  them  were  foreigners  whose  independence  of 
character  was  beyond  dispute,  and  who  would,  without  hesita- 
tion, have  given  a  contrary  verdict  had  there  been  reason  for  it; 


340      RUSSfA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

but  they  one  and  all  came  to  the  same  conclusion  ;  and  several 
years  later  Dr.  Marouin,  the  eminent  physician  of  the  French 
embassy,  as  well  as  Dr.  Dickson,  published  a  statement  that 
nothing  had  in  the  slightest  degree  shaken  the  conviction  orig- 
inally arrived  at  by  them.  Even  if  the  medical  evidence  stood 
alone,  it  would  seem  to  be  very  conclusive ;  but  it  does  not 
stand  alone,  and  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  statements  of 
the  women  of  the  harem,  it  appears  quite  irresistible. 

"  Dr.  Millingen,  as  medical  attendant  of  these  ladies,  went 
into  the  harem,  and  questioned  them,  immediately  after  examin- 
ing the  body.  They  told  him  that,  in  consequence  of  the  state 
of  mind  into  which  the  sultan  had  fallen  since  his  deposition, 
every  weapon  or  instrument  by  which  he  could  do  himself  or 
others  an  injury  had  been  removed  from  his  reach  ;  that  in  the 
morning  he  had  asked  for  a  pair  of  scissors  to  trim  his  beard, 
which  were  at  first  refused,  but  afterwards,  in  spite  of  the  urgent 
remonstrances  of  the  women,  they  were  sent  to  him  by  the  order 
of  the  sultan's  valide,  who  did  not  like  to  refuse  him ;  and  that, 
as  soon  as  he  got  them  he  made  the  women  leave  the  room, 
and  locked  the  door.  The  women  took  their  station  at  the  pro- 
jecting side  window  of  the  adjoining  room  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  from  whence  they  could  look  into  the  part  of  the  room 
in  which  the  sultan's  chair  stood,  and  could  just  see  the  back  of 
his  head  as  he  sat  in  it.  After  a  time  they  saw  his  head  fall 
forward,  and  alarm  being  taken,  the  valide  ordered  the  door  to 
be  broken  open,  when  the  sultan  was  found  dead,  with  pools  of 
blood  on  the  floor,  and  with  the  veins  of  both  arms  opened. 
When  Dr.  Millingen,  hearing  that  the  valide  was  in  a  state  of 
distraction,  asked  if  she  would  see  him,  she  exclaimed  that  it 
was  not  the  doctor,  but  the  executioner  who  should  be  sent  to 
her,  as  it  was  she  who  had  caused  the  death  of  her  son. 

"  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  had  an  undoubted  predisposition  to  in- 
sanity in  his  blood.  He  had,  to  my  own  knowledge,  been  out 
of  his  mind  on  several  occasions,  the  first  being  as  far  back  as 
1863.  I  had  spoken  of  his  insanity  in  my  letters  to  Lord  Derby, 
reporting  that  I  had  been  told  of  it  as  an  undoubted  fact  by  one 
of  the  ministers.  He  was  known  to  hold  that  suicide  was  the 
proper  resource  of  a  deposed  monarch.  When  the  news  of  the 
deposition  of  Napoleon  III.  had  been  brought  to  him,  his  im- 
mediate exclamation  had  been:  'And  that  man  consents  to 
live  ! '  If  at  the  time  there  was  no  ground  for  a  suspicion  of 
assassination,  there  was  certainly  no  evidence  worthy  of  the 
slightest  consideration  brought  forward  three  years  later,  at  the 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAM  ID.  341 

iniquitous  trial,  when  the  ruin  of  certain  important  personages 
had  been  resolved  upon.  The  men  on  whose  perjured  and 
suborned  evidence  the  conviction  of  Midhat  Pasha  and  others 
was  obtained,  though  they  declared  themselves  to  have  mur- 
dered the  sultan  with  their  own  hands  at  the  instigation  of 
the  pashas,  were  not  only  not  executed,  but  are  believed  to 
have  continued  in  the  enjoyment  ever  since  of  comfortable 
pensions." 1 

It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  for  this  iniquitous  pro- 
ceeding —  this  blot  upon  an  otherwise  creditable  reign  — 
Abdul  Hamid  himself  is  to  be  held  responsible.  For  the 
first  four  years  after  his  accession  he  was  completely  in  the 
power  of  three  of  his  ministers,  a  triumvirate  who  would  not 
even  allow  him  a  voice  in  the  matter  of  appointments.  As 
for  instance  when  the  sultan,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Rus- 
sian war,  nominated  the  unfortunate  Baker  Pasha  (Col. 
Valentine  Baker)  second  in  command  of  the  armies  of  the 
Sublime  Porte,  the  seraskier  Redif  Pasha  flatly  refused  to 
give  him  his  commission.  Baker  objected  that  the  sultan 
had  given  him  orders  to  join  the  army.  "  No  matter,"  said 
Redif;  "he  will  revoke  those  orders,  for  I  refuse  my  signa- 
ture to  any  order  that  may  be  given  you  to  leave  Constanti- 
nople for  Shumla." 

The  three  men  who  composed  the  triumvirate  were,  Mah- 
moud  Damat ;  Redif  Pasha,  seraskier  (or  head  of  the  war 
department)  ;  -and  Said  Pasha,  an  excellent  man,  educated 
in  England,  but  very  timid.  He  was  made  ferik  of  the 
Palace,  that  is,  its  chief  controller.  The  sultan  was  also  at 
that  time  very  much  under  the  influence  of  his  foster  sister, 
the  wife  of  Mahmoud  Damat. 

Abdul  Hamid,  who  bore  the  name  of  his  great  grand- 
father, was  the  third  son  of  Abdul  Medjid,  and  was  born  in 
1842.  His  mother  was  a  Georgian  who  died  of  consump- 
tion very  soon  after  his  birth.  He  was  then  adopted  by 
one  of  his  father's  wives  who  was  childless,  and  who  sub- 
sequently occupied  the  position  of  the  sultan's  mother  or 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  1888. 


342      RUSSIA  AND   TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

valide,  though  the  office  has  been  somewhat  shorn  of  its 
privileges. 

His  health  being  delicate,  he  was  never  urged  to  make 
much  progress  in  his  studies ;  but  after  his  visit  to  the  courts 
of  Europe  with  his  uncle  Abdul  Aziz,  and  his  brother  Murad, 
he  acquired  a  strong  liking  for  European  ways  of  life,  and 
developed  a  great  desire  to  improve  himself  in  certain 
branches  of  learning,  especially  in  geography  and  topog- 
raphy. He  has  a  large  collection  of  maps  and  charts,  and 
nothing  pleases  him  better  than  a  gift  of  photographs  of 
remarkable  places.  Before  coming  to  the  throne,  after 
which  for  a  while  all  his  wishes  were  made  subservient  to 
those  of  his  ministers,  he  had  expressed  himself  as  well 
aware  that  the  friendly  feelings  of  Europe  toward  Turkey 
could  not  but  have  been  checked  by  the  outrages  in  Bul- 
garia ;  that  the  credit  of  the  country  ought  to  be  restored 
by  economy ;  that  justice  should  be  done  to  public  cred- 
itors, and  control  established  over  the  finances  to  put  a 
stop  to  corruption. 

On  August  31,  1876,  Abdul  Hamid  was  proclaimed  sul- 
tan, and  was  at  once  girt  with  the  sword  of  Othman,  the 
people  looking  on  without  any  demonstration  of  satisfaction 
or  enthusiasm.  Six  weeks  later  it  was  announced  that  a 
scheme  of  reform  for  the  whole  Ottoman  Empire  was  in 
course  of  preparation. 

This  instrument  made  its  appearance  in  the  following 
January.  It  was  a  much  less  sweeping  reform  than  Midhat 
wished,  or  could  have  had  granted  under  Sultan  Murad ; 
nevertheless  it  provided  for  a  Senate,  and  a  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, which  last  was  to  take  control  of  the  finances ; 
the  system  of  taxation  was  to  be  revised,  and  better  laws 
were  to  be  enacted  for  the  provinces.  Election  to  the  lower 
house  was  to  be  by  universal  suffrage ;  for  the  upper  house 
electors  were  restricted  to  two  classes :  the  noble,  and  the 
educated. 

Abdul  Hamid  seems  cordially  to  have  disapproved  of 
this  check  on  the  absolute  power  enjoyed  by  his  prede- 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAM  ID.  343 

cessors.  He  was  willing  to  do  justice,  and  to  temper  it 
with  mercy ;  but  to  be  placed  in  the  position  of  a  servant 
of  his  people  was  odious  to  him.  Indeed  that  very  phrase, 
reported  to  him  as  having  been  used  by  one  of  the 
reformers,  poisoned  his  mind  against  Midhat  Pasha. 

At  a  council  held  when  only  his  other  ministers  were 
present,  the  sultan  asked  what  should  be  done  with  Midhat 
Pasha.  Two  of  those  present  answered,  "  Let  him  die." 
But  Abdul  Hamid  has  never  been  bloodthirsty.  It  was 
decided  to  banish  him  to  Arabia,  and  he  was  arrested  at 
once,  as  he  was  entering  the  Council  Chamber.  We  have 
seen  how  two  years  later  a  charge  was  trumped  up  against 
him  of  having,  in  conjunction  with  Hussein  Avni,  instigated 
the  murder  of  Abdul  Aziz. 

There  were  two  sessions  of  the  Turkish  Parliament,  which 
conducted  itself  in  a  manner  that  at  once  filled  those  who 
wished  well  to  Turkish  reform  with  admiration  and  surprise. 
But  the  sultan  was  unwilling  to  rule  as  a  constitutional 
sovereign;  the  pashas,  against  whose  cruelty  and  corrup- 
tion most  of  the  reforms  were  aimed,  sided  with  their 
sovereign ;  the  triumvirate  held  the  reins  of  power,  and 
was  restive  when  its  acts,  pronounced  unconstitutional  by 
the  Parliament,  had  to  be  defended  in  a  manner  never 
before  heard  of  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  A  return  to  the 
old  methods  was  effected  in  the  old  way.  By  the  will  of 
the  sultan  the  constitution  was  abrogated,  and  before  long 
the  dismission  of  the  ministers  who  had  formed  the  trium- 
virate followed. 

Since  then  Abdul  Hamid  has  governed  alone.  His  rare 
industry,  his  unexampled  economy,  his  steadfastness  of 
purpose,  and  his  moral  courage,  have  won  for  him  the 
respect  and  affection  of  his  subjects,  and  the  commendation 
of  foreigners  who  visit  his  capital. 

He  had  been  called  to  the  throne  in  the  darkest  moment 
of  Turkish  history.  The  State  had  recently  declared 
itself  bankrupt ;  its  finances  were  in  a  state  of  chaos  ;  war 
was  going  on  with  Servia,  and  was  impending  with  Russia ; 


344      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

besides  which  all  Christian  powers  were  exasperated  by  the 
outrages  in  Bulgaria.  Eighteen  months  after  Abdul  Hamid's 
accession,  Russian  troops  had  threatened  his  capital,  and 
extorted  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano.  The  Congress  of  Ber- 
lin, while  it  tore  up  this  treaty,  consulted  only  the  interests 
of  western  Europe  in  the  provisions  that  replaced  it,  and 
they  greatly  reduced  the  area  of  the  sultan's  dominions. 

Abdul  Hamid  accepted  the  decision  of  the  Congress,  — 
he  could  not  do  otherwise,  —  but  it  taught  him  a  policy  to 
which  he  has  strictly  adhered.  He  dreads  friends  as  much 
as  enemies.  He  will  enter  into  no  entangling  alliances 
with  any  Christian  nation.  He  works  with  an  energy  that 
wears  out  his  ministers,  but  they  are  only  heads  of  depart- 
ments ;  he  keeps  all  power  in  his  own  hands.  Like  Queen 
Victoria  he  reads  every  despatch ;  and  he  gives  his  own 
orders.  This  sometimes  indeed  impedes  business,  for 
there  are  limits  to  what  the  industry  of  any  one  man  can 
do.  He  has  every  day  all  newspaper  articles  or  paragraphs 
that  appear  in  European  papers  and  bear  upon  Turkey,  or 
the  general  affairs  of  Europe,  translated  for  him  into  Turk- 
ish ;  for  he  is  no  linguist,  speaking  fluently  no  language 
but  his  own ;  and  he  never  has  been  known  to  sign  a  paper 
without  first  reading  it.  He  has  established  a  government 
printing-press,  and  now,  "  by  imperial  command,  all  the 
most  important  literary  and  scientific  works  of  Europe  are 
issued  in  translation  at  Constantinople." 

Probably  the  most  trustworthy  account  of  Sultan  Abdul 
Hamid  has  been  given  us  by  the  Hungarian  Professor 
Arminius  Vambe"ry.  This  wonderful  linguist  and  enterpris- 
ing traveller,  was  a  poor  lame  boy  apprenticed  by  his  parents 
to  a  dressmaker.  From  this  employment  he  ran  away,  and 
through  unheard-of  difficulties,  procured  himself  an  educa- 
tion, —  learning  all  the  languages  of  Europe,  so  that  he 
speaks  and  writes  them  like  a  native.  In  1860,  he  went 
to  Turkey,  where  he  became  known  as  Reschid  Effendi. 
He  adopted  Turkish  manners  and  Turkish  dress  ;  and  made 
his  way  to  Persia.  There  he  assumed  the  character  of  a 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAMID.  345 

mollah,  or  ecclesiastic,  and  travelled,  in  company  with  a 
band  of  dervishes  (the  Callenders  of  the  Arabian  Nights) 
to  Bokhara,  and  Samarcand.  His  story  is  so  very  interest- 
ing that  I  have  long  wondered  that  it  is  so  little  known. 
Not  long  ago  he  revisited,  by  railroad,  the  scenes  of  his 
painful,  dangerous,  toilsome  desert  journey;  and  in  the 
preceding  chapter  I  have  quoted  largely  what  he  says 
about  the  changes  which,  since  1860,  have  taken  place  in 
Central  Asia.  He  spent  some  time  in  Turkey  two  years 
since,  and  while  there  was  admitted  on  terms  of  companion- 
ship and  .intimacy  to  intercourse  with  the  present  sultan, 
whom  he  had  known  very  slightly  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  century  before,  when  the  future  Padishah,  a  lad  of  sixteen, 
was  only  Hamid  Effendi;  but  his  pronounced  Oriental 
features,  his  expressive  eyes,  and  his  reserved  and  dignified 
manner  had  stamped  themselves,  even  at  that  age,  on 
Vambe'ry's  memory.  As  Professor  Vambery  is  one  of  the 
few  Europeans  whom  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  has  favored  with 
his  confidence,  I  can  hardly  do  better  than  quote  what  he 
has  said  of  him  in  his  own  words  :  — 

"  I  must  own  that  the  education  of  Abdul  Hamid,  like  that  of 
all  Oriental  princes,  was  defective,  very  defective  indeed ;  but 
an  iron  will,  good  judgment,  and  rare  acuteness,  have  made 
good  this  shortcoming,  and  he  not  only  knows  the  multifarious 
relations  and  intricacies  of  his  own  much-tried  empire,  but  is 
thoroughly  conversant  with  European  politics ;  and  I  am  not 
going  far  from  the  fact  when  I  state  that  it  has  been  solely  the 
moderation  and  self-restraint  of  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  which 
have  saved  us  hitherto  from  a  general  European  conflagration. 
To  all  pressure  from  Russia,  and  central  European  powers,  to 
vindicate  by  arms  his  rights  in  Eastern  Roumelia,  he  answered 
with  the  Arab  saying,  <  Peace  is  the  best  of  all  judges.'  As  to 
his  personal  character,  I  have  found  the  present  ruler  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  of  great  politeness,  amiability,  and  extreme 
gentleness.  When  sitting  opposite  to  him  during  my  private 
interviews,  I  could  not  avoid  being  struck  by  his  extremely 
modest  attitude,  by  his  quiet  manners,  and  by  the  bashful  look 
of  his  eyes.  He  carefully  avoids  in  conversation  all  allusion  to 
his  position  as  a  ruler,  and  when  unavoidably  obliged  to  men- 


346      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

tion  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  he  invariably  says,  '  Since  I 
came  to  this  place.'  He  has  ever  since  that  time  shown  himself 
anxious  to  do  away  with  the  encumbering  etiquette  of  Oriental 
court  life,  and  he  likes  to  show  himself  plain,  civil,  and  unaffected 
to  his  visitors.  He  drives  himself,  even  in  public ;  his  dress  is 
scrupulously  plain.  He  has  discarded  the  aigrette,  worn  on  the 
fez  by  his  predecessors  as  a  sign  of  royalty.  At  his  table, 
though  wine  is  served  to  European  guests,  it  is  not  offered  to 
the  sultan,  or  any  other  Mohammedan. 

"  His  views  on  religion,  politics,  and  education  have  a  decid- 
edly modern  tone,  and  yet  he  is  a  firm  believer  in  the  tenets  of 
his  religion,  and  likes  to  assemble  round  him  the  foremost 
mollahs  and  pious  sheiks,  on  whom  he  profusely  bestows 
imperial  favors ;  but  he  does  not  forget  from  time  to  time  to 
send  presents  to  the  Greek  and  Armenian  patriarchates;  and 
nothing  is  more  ludicrous  than  to  hear  this  prince  accused  by  a 
certain  class  of  politicians  in  Europe  of  being  a  fanatic,  and  an 
enemy  to  Christians,  —  a  prince  who  by  appointing  a  Christian 
for  his  chief  medical  attendant,  and  a  Christian  for  his  chief 
minister  of  finance,  did  not  hesitate  to  intrust  most  important 
duties  to  non-Mohammedans.  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  is  the  first 
Ottoman  ruler  in  whose  hospitality,  not  only  European  princes 
and  ambassadors  and  distinguished  visitors  from  the  West,  but 
his  own  Christian  subjects,  amply  partake.  He  is  the  first  Otto- 
man ruler  who  has  publicly  encouraged  the  arts  of  painting  and 
of  sculpture,  in  spite  of  those  arts  being  strictly  forbidden  by 
orthodox  Mohammedanism;  and  during  one  of  my  visits  he 
pointed  out  to  me,  with  a  certain  pride,  two  pictures  in  his  salon 
as  having  been  painted  by  Moslem  pupils,  brought  up  in  the 
School  of  Art  in  Stamboul ;  and  I  can  state  with  confidence 
that,  if  the  Turks  continue  steadily  on  the  way  inaugurated  by 
their  present  ruler,  and  if  political  complication  does  not  offer 
any  hindrance,  they  will  soon  reach  a  level  of  culture  on  which 
they  may  secure  a  firm  basis  of  mental  and  economical  devel- 
opment, and  future  political  existence. 

" '  It  is  for  this  purpose,'  said  the  sultan  one  day  to  me,  'that 
peace  is  now  the  object  of  my  desire  ;  peace  alone  can  cure  the 
manifold  evils  and  shortcomings  of  the  past ;  order  and  security 
can  only  be  introduced  by  civil  officers  trained  and  educated  in 
the  school  of  modern  social  and  political  life.'  In  accordance 
with  these  views  a  new  spirit  seems  to  have  taken  hold  of  the 
whole  people;  the  language  and  literature  have  undergone  an 
essential  change ;  while  I  am  writing  this  paper  I  have  on  my 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAMID.  347 

table  various  Turkish  books  and  treatises  on  social  economy, 
history,  astronomy,  geography,  etc.,  which  are  sent  to  me  for 
review,  and  some  of  which  are  really  admirable.  Of  course 
there  is  much,  very  much,  to  be  done  yet  in  the  way  of  public 
instruction,  for  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  is  totally  ignorant 
and  neglected ;  but  educational  progress  does  not  permit  of 
leaps  and  bounds,  and  we  are  only  doing  justice  to  the  praise- 
worthy efforts  of  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  in  mentioning  that  he  is 
sincerely  bent  on  the  amelioration  and  mental  development  of 
his  subjects.  .  .  . 

"  In  reference  to  the  charge  of  ruthless  despotism  laid  upon 
Sultan  Abdul  Hamid,  in  connection  with  his  abrogation  of  the 
charter  granted  during  the  first  months  of  his  reign,  I  will  also 
quote  his  own  words.  He  said  to  me  one  day :  *  In  Europe  the 
soil  was  prepared  centuries  ago  for  liberal  institutions  ;  and  now 
I  am  asked  to  transplant  a  sapling  to  the  foreign,  stony,  and 
rugged  ground  of  Asiatic  life.  Let  me  clear  away  the  thistles 
and  stones,  let  me  till  the  soil,  and  provide  for  irrigation,  because 
rain  is  very  scarce  in  Asia,  and  then  we  may  transport  the  new 
plant ;  and  believe  me  that  nobody  will  be  more  delighted  at  its 
thriving  than  myself.' 

"  We  need  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  deplorable  conditions 
under  which  Turkey  is  laboring;  we  must  not  lose  sight  of 
ruined  villages,  neglected  roads,  decaying  towns,  choked  har- 
bors, and  an  impoverished  population ;  but  we  can  be,  nay,  we 
must  be,  indulgent,  and,  instead  of  always  finding  fault  with  the 
Mohammedan  Turk,  we  should  begin  to  discard  all  political 
bias  in  our  judgment  of  an  Eastern  prince  and  of  his  people." 

These  are  the  words  of  a  man  who  knows  what  he  is 
talking  about,  who  has  dwelt  with  Turks,  who  speaks  their  lan- 
guage as  well  as  he  writes  English,  and  we  find  his  judgment 
of  their  ruler  confirmed  on  all  sides.  Not  only  was  Abdul 
Hamid  the  sincere  personal  friend  of  the  author  of  "  Ben 
Hur,"  which  ought  of  itself  to  create  among  Americans  a 
prejudice  in  his  favor,  but  we  have  the  impressions  of  the 
American  minister,  the  Hon.  S.  S.  Cox,  who  succeeded 
General  Wallace,  and  who  has  published  his  "  Diversions 
of  a  Diplomat,"  which,  though  based  on  far  less  knowledge 
than  the  writings  of  Professor  Vambery,  confirm  his  conclu- 
sions. Mr.  Cox  says  of  the  sultan  :  — 


348       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

"He  is  middle-sized  and  of  the  Turkish  type.  He  wears  a 
full  black  beard,  is  of  a  dark  complexion,  and  has  very  expres- 
sive eyes.  His  forehead  is  large,  indicative  of  intellectual 
power.  He  is  very  gracious  in  his  manner,  though  at  times 
seemingly  a  little  embarrassed.  .  .  .  You  may  ask  how  he  is 
dressed.  I  have  generally  seen  him  in  a  blue-black  frock  coat, 
closely  buttoned,  edged  with  red  cord.  He  is  a  graceful  rider, 
and  when  on  horseback,  like  his  fellow-countrymen,  he  shows 
to  advantage.  His  title  *  sultan  '  does  not  signify  all  the  power 
he  possesses  as  an  absolute  ruler,  but  yet  it  signifies  much. 
'  Padishah '  signifies  most.  It  is  the  chief  and  favorite  title.  It 
signifies  '  Father  of  all  the  Sovereigns  of  the  Earth.'  As  caliph 
he  is  the  Divine  representative  of  Mahomet.  His  family  line 
runs  back  with  unbroken  links  to  the  thirteenth  century.  .  .  .  He 
is  one  of  the  most  industrious,  painstaking,  honest,  conscientious 
and  vigilant  rulers  of  the  world.  He  is  amiable  and  just  withal. 
His  every  word  betokens  a  good  heart  and  a  sagacious  head. 
He  is  an  early  riser.  After  he  leaves  his  seraglio  and  has  par- 
taken of  a  slight  repast,  his  secretaries  wait  on  him  with  port- 
folios. He  peruses  all  the  official  correspondence,  and  current 
reports.  He  gives  up  his  time  till  noon  to  work  of  this  charac- 
ter. Then  his  breakfast  is  served.  After  that  he  walks  in  his 
park  and  gardens,  looks  in  at  his  aviaries,  perhaps  stirs  up  his 
menagerie,  makes  an  inspection  of  his  two  hundred  horses  in 
their  fine  stables,  indulges  his  little  daughters  in  a  row  upon  the 
fairy  lake  which  he  has  had  constructed,  and,  it  may  be,  attends 
a  performance  at  the  little  theatre  provided  for  his  children  in 
the  palace.  At  5  P.  M.,  having  accomplished  most  of  his  official 
work,  he  mounts  his  favorite  white  horse  Ferhan,  a  war-scarred 
veteran,  for  a  ride  in  the  park.  The  park  of  the  palace  of 
Yildiz,  where  he  lives,  comprises  some  thousand  acres.  It  is 
surrounded  by  high  walls,  and  protected  by  the  soldiery.  Often- 
times, being  a  fine  shot,  he  tries  his  aim  upon  some  of  the  wild 
fowl  which  are  decoyed  on  to  the  waters  of  the  park.  He  is  at 
the  palace  for  dinner  at  seven.  When  without  guests  he  dines 
alone ;  when  he  receives  company  he  dines  after  the  European 
method.  It  would  be  a  task  to  make  a  catalogue  of  the  gold 
and  silver  candelabra  and  massive  epergncs  which,  with  their 
flowers  and  fruits,  decorate  the  table.  When  foreigners  are 
present  Munir  Pasha,  his  first  chamberlain,  acts  as  interpreter, 
standing  behind  his  Majesty's  gold  chair.  He  offers  wine  to 
his  guests,  but  he  indulges  only  in  water.  A  fine  military  band 
plays  during  the  meal.  The  servants  are  dressed  in  scarlet  with 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAM1D.  349 

gold  epaulets.  You  would  think  they  were  mutes  by  the  quiet 
way  they  serve.  It  is  understood,  of  course,  that  the  wives  of 
the  sultan  are  never  at  the  table.  The  wives  of  others  are  fre- 
quently invited  (Americans  or  Europeans),  but  on  such  occa- 
sions the  sultan  does  not  preside.  If  the  sultan  desires  to  con- 
verse with  any  one,  there  is  a  convenient  room  where  cigarettes 
and  coffee  assist  the  conversation.  But  it  is  all  over  by  ten 
o'clock.  Imperial  carriages  for  the  guests  are  then  at  the 
door." 

Abdul  Hamid  takes  particular  interest  in  natural  history, 
and  has  collections  of  stuffed  animals  and  impaled  insects 
of  all  kinds.  He  is  also  greatly  interested  in  trees  and  in 
fruit  raising.  Professor  Vambe'ry  speaks  of  having  one  day 
been  presented  with  a  dish  of  strawberries  laid  out  in  vari- 
ous lines  according  to  the  shadings  of  the  fruit,  headed  by 
a  bit  of  paper  bearing  the  inscription :  "  From  plants 
reared  by  the  hand  of  his  Majesty."  On  another  occasion 
an  apple  and  a  peach  of  extraordinary  beauty  were  similarly 
sent  to  him.  Several  times  before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Cox 
the  sultan  had  expressed  a  wish  to  receive  from  America  a 
collection  of  American  fruit-bearing  trees,  shrubs,  and  ever- 
greens. He  also  desired  photographic  and  stereoscopic 
views  of  scenery,  buildings,  and  so  forth,  in  the  United 
States.  The  trees,  I  believe,  have  not  been  sent;  but  in 
May,  1886,  Mr.  Cox  had  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  his 
Majesty  a  very  fine  collection  of  photographic  views  of 
points  of  interest  in  America,  and  likewise  a  copy  of  the 
"Reports  of  the  United  States  Census  for  1880." 

"  The  sultan  was  delighted  with  the  gift.  He  selected  some 
of  the  views  from  the  hundreds  before  him,  and  placed  them  in 
the  stereoscope,  on  which  was  inscribed  on  a  silver  plate : 
'  From  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  His  Imperial 
Majesty,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.'  They  elicited  expressions  of 
delight  and  wonder.  The  photographs  of  the  *  Red  Men '  at- 
tracted his  eager  attention.  He  asked  many  questions  as  to 
their  origin,  their  movements,  and  their  present  numbers,  con- 
dition, and  government.  I  could  see  he  surmised  them  to  be  of 
that  Mongol  race  which  in  the  cycles  of  history  clustered  in 


3 $O    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

4  Tartar  tribes '  on  the  territory  between  the  Himalayas  and  the 
Mediterranean  ;  out  of  which  came  the  Seljukian  Turks,  who 
almost  conquered  Europe,  as  well  as  a  large  part  of  Asia  and 
Africa.  He  was  anxious  to  know  if  our  Indians  amounted  to 
much,  and  how  we  provided  for  them.  I  explained  as  well  as 
I  could  the  effects  of  white  raids,  whiskey,  and  '  land-grabbing,' 
as  well  as  the  reservation  plan.  The  towns  and  houses  of  the 
Zuni  Indians  attracted  his  attention ;  for  they  are  counterparts 
of  certain  towns  in  Asia  Minor.  The  sultan  asked  curiously, 
pointing  to  the  minaret  of  the  new  mosque  visible  from  the 
kiosk,  if  they  believed  in  one  God  ?  I  gave  him  a  brief  outline 
of  the  natural  religion  of  these  people,  who  have  almost  ceased 
to  be  interesting  to  ourselves,  except  in  romances,  but  who,  as 
these  photographs  showed,  are  a  source  of  infinite  interest  to  the 
ethnologist." 


There  are  four  palaces  of  note  in  Constantinople,  —  the 
old  palace  of  Top-Kapou,  the  original  residence  of  the 
conquerors  of  Constantinople  ;  the  Tcheragan,  where  Abdul 
Aziz  died,  and  where  ex-Sultan  Murad  is  now  in  confine- 
ment ;  the  Dolma-Bagtche",  a  magnificent  structure  built  by 
Sultan  Abdul  Medjid ;  and  the  old  Seraglio,  to  whose  limits 
Prince  Yussef  Izzeddin  and  the  other  descendants  of  Abdul 
Aziz  are  restricted. 

Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  rarely  inhabits  the  Dolma-Bagtche' 
Palace,  though  it  is  used  sometimes  for  official  receptions. 
In  point  of  fact  residence  there  is  too  expensive;  it 
involves  providing  for  six  thousand  people  out  of  the  im- 
perial treasury.  The  sultan,  the  first  Ottoman  ruler  ever 
endowed  with  a  spirit  of  economy,  made  it  his  first  busi- 
ness, on  coming  to  the  throne,  to  reduce  the  expenses  of  his 
household.  But  there  are  many  vested  interests  connected 
with  a  sultan's  harem ;  and  though  he  has  consistently  dis- 
couraged unnecessary  expenses,  and  is  said  to  confine  him- 
self to  one  wife,  he  cannot  escape  having  at  least  three 
hundred  ladies  in  his  seraglio,  according  to  the  customs  of 
his  land  and  of  his  dynasty.  About  one  hundred  of  these 
girls  are  married  to  pashas  and  great  officers  of  State  every 
year;  and  each  of  them  is  entitled  to  receive  a  marriage 


SUL  TAN  ABD  UL  HAMID.  3  5  I 

portion  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  As  the  sultan  loathes  the 
whole  system,  but  is  obliged  to  permit  each  vacancy  to  be 
filled,  a  recent  English  ambassador  strongly  advised  him  to 
make  a  stand  against  it  \  but  was  told  that  this  would  not  be 
easy,  seeing  that  every  cabinet-minister  and  pasha  of  note 
looks  upon  passing  his  daughter  through  the  sultan's  harem 
as  a  simple  means  of  securing  her  a  marriage  portion  and  a 
brilliant  establishment. 

The  sultan  ever  since  his  accession,  or  rather  ever  since 
he  took  power  into  his  own  hands,  has  preferred  to  live  at 
Yildiz.  This  small  palace  is  beautifully  situated  on  the 
summit  of  a  high  hill,  about  two  miles  beyond  the  bounds 
of  Constantinople.  The  Bosphorus,  which  it  overlooks,  is 
in  front  of  it,  and  is  two  miles  wide.  It  runs  about  a  mile 
below  the  palace,  and  then  melts  into  the  Sea  of  Marmora. 
"  Yildiz  "  in  Turkish  means  a  star.  It  is  the  star  which  lies 
between  the  horns  of  the  Crescent.  The  park  and  grounds 
are  of  great  extent,  and  are  surrounded  by  a  high  wall  to 
prevent  intrusion. 

On  Saturday,  May  29,  1886,  the  American  minister  and 
his  wife  were  invited  to  dine  at  the  palace.  Several  ladies, 
wives  of  ministers  and  ambassadors,  had  been  invited  to 
meet  Mrs.  Cox,  and  very  distinguished  gentlemen  and  offi- 
cials to  meet  her  husband.  On  driving  up  to  the  palace, 
they  noticed  that  the  garden  wall  was  one  mass  of  Bankshia 
roses. 

"  We  were  met,"  says  Mr.  Cox,  "  at  the  vestibule  by  a  grand 
pasha  in  uniform  and  decorations.  We  walked  upon  carpets, 
ascended  and  descended  into  the  marble  entrance,  and  were 
there  invited  to  take  off  our  wraps.  We  were  then  ushered  into 
a  small  side-room,  where  we  found  the  German  ambassador  and 
ambassadress  with  other  invited  guests,  among  them  Dr. 
Mavroyeni,  the  sultan's  physician,  whose  son  was  subsequently 
Turkish  minister  to  the  United  States.  Thence  in  a  few  mo- 
ments we  were  summoned  to  the  upper  salon,  and  presented  in 
turn  to  the  sultan  by  the  master  of  ceremonies.  The  sultan 
cordially  shook  hands  with  all.  When  the  ladies  were  seated 
on  the  divan,  he  called  up  the  three  princes,  —  his  son,  then 


352      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

seventeen  years  old,  and  two  nephews,  who  are  being  educated 
as  his  companions.  These  youths  wore  military  suits,  epaulets, 
spurs,  and  swords.  Each  was  presented  in  turn.  The  sultan 
accompanied  his  guests  to  the  door  of  the  grand  salon  (we  have 
seen  that  he  never  dines  with  ladies),  gave  us  a  parting  saluta- 
tion, and  remarked  that  he  would  continue  the  reception  after 
dinner." 

The  dining-table  was  wide  and  long,  with  a  gorgeous  dis- 
play of  flowers,  lights,  and  crystal  shades.  The  American 
minister  and  his  wife  were  placed  among  the  princes.  One 
of  these  lads,  Tewfik,  was  about  ten  years  of  age,  —  a  meek, 
subdued-looking  child.  He  spoke  only  Turkish.  The 
other  two  could  speak  some  French.  The  princes  seemed 
interested  in  geography.  They  were  curious  about  Egypt, 
which  their  guests  had  lately  visited.  They  asked  also 
about  America.  In  turn  the  minister  inquired  about  their 
amusements,  but  got  little  information.  Their  exalted  posi- 
tion apparently  gave  little  scope  for  amusing  themselves. 

After  dinner  all  passed  into  a  beautiful  green  and  black 
tiled  coffee-room  to  take  coffee ;  and  there  was  presented  to 
Mrs.  Cox,  by  order  of  the  sultan,  the  Grand  Order  of  the 
Chefekat,  —  that  is,  the  Order  of  Good  Works.  It  was  a 
star  in  brown,  gold,  and  green  enamel  set  with  brilliants. 
It  had  five  points,  and  twenty-six  diamonds  in  each  point. 
The  order  had  originated  in  a  wish  to  honor  Lady  Layard 
for  her  services  in  the  hospitals  during  the  Crimean  War. 
Next  the  ladies  were  driven  round  the  beautiful  gardens,  the 
gentlemen  following  on  foot ;  but  no  offer  was  made  to  take 
any  one  into  the  harem.  "  The  scene,"  says  Mr.  Cox,  "  was 
like  one  from  the  Arabian  Nights.  The  beautiful  lights  in 
the  garden  and  from  the  windows  of  the  palace,  the  plashing 
fountains,  and  the  fragrant  air  produced  the  impression  of 
something  magical  and  marvellous." 

After  that  they  returned  to  another  salon,  with  a  parquetted 
floor  covered  with  rugs,  divans,  chairs,  and  tables.  On  the 
shelves  were  rare  books.  It  was  the  sultan's  library. 
There  he  again  received  them,  talking  with  them  through 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAMID.  353 

an  interpreter.  A  German  violinist,  accompanied  on  the 
piano  by  a  pasha  in  attendance,  gave  some  music.  The 
sultan  lighted  a  cigarette,  and  asked  the  gentlemen  to  join 
him.  The  ladies,  who  did  not  smoke,  were  offered  tea  in 
golden  cups  and  saucers.  Then  the  sultan,  rising,  took 
little  Tewfik  his  nephew  by  the  hand,  and  led  him  to  the 
piano,  saying  to  his  guests :  "  This  boy  will  give  us  some 
music,  though  he  plays  only  by  ear."  The  quiet  little 
prince  played  a  spirited  march,  and  then  some  selections 
from  Norma.  His  father,  a  younger  son  of  Abdul  Medjid, 
had  died  when  Tewfik  was  only  a  few  months  old,  and  the 
sultan  had  assumed  his  guardianship  and  education. 

The  present  heir  to  the  throne  by  Ottoman  law  is  Mehemet 
Reschid  (or  Richard) .  He  is  the  third  son  of  Abdul  Medjid, 
and  the  next  brother  to  the  present  sultan.  Abdul  Hamid 
in  1887  had  six  children,  four  sons  and  two  daughters;  the 
oldest  was  the  youth  Mehemet  Selim,  presented  to  the 
American  minister,  who  was  born  Jan.  i,  1871.  The 
daughters  were  named  Zekihe,  and  Naime.  Besides  Murad 
and  Reschid,  Abdul  Hamid  had  three  other  brothers.  These 
princes  and  others  of  the  imperial  family,  with  the  exception 
of  those  confined  to  their  palaces  in  semi- captivity,  "  are 
often  to  be  seen  driving  or  riding  about  the  city,  and  not 
unfrequently  at  the  '  Sweet  Waters  '  of  Europe,  where  every 
class  of  people  congregate.  They  are  of  distinguished 
appearance,  and  dress  in  Frank  costume,  except  that  each 
and  all  wear  the  inevitable  fez." 

The  great  difficulty  that  besets  Abdul  Hamid  is  the  lack 
of  enlightened  and  honest  subordinates  to  carry  out  his 
plans  for  the  welfare  of  his  people.  Being  fully  sensible  of 
this,  he  has  had  it  in  view  in  the  enlargement  and  improve- 
ment of  the  school  system.  It  was  remarked  many  years 
since  by  travellers  that  Turks,  however  poor,  could  read  and 
write,  but  this  knowledge  was  acquired  solely  by  reading 
the  Koran ;  under  Abdul  Hamid  more  useful  and  more 
modern  attainments  can  be  acquired.  He  has  frequently 
expressed  the  hope  that  improved  education  may  supply 

23 


354      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

himself  and  his  successors  with  civil  officers  more  upright 
and  intelligent  than  those  he  is  now  able  to  send  into  country 
districts  remote  from  his  capital.  Probably  the  worst  gov- 
erned part  of  his  dominions  is  Armenia.  Thirty- three 
years  ago.  when  Arminius  Vambery  first  travelled  through 
that  country,  he  found  its  provincial  government  was  horri- 
ble. In  an  Armenian  village,  recently  plundered  by  ban- 
ditti, he  asked  :  "  Why  do  you  not  get  help  from  the  gover- 
nor of  Erzeroum?"  "Because,"  answered  the  villagers, 
"he  is  at  the  head  of  the  robbers.  God  alone,  and  his 
representative  on  earth,  the  Russian  czar,  can  help  us."  And 
we  may  be  sure  this  feeling  is  kept  alive  by  Russian  agents. 
But  the  first  care  of  Abdul  Hamid,  after  something  had  been 
done  to  set  straight  the  finances  of  the  empire,  which  were 
in  utter  confusion,  was  to  put  down  brigandage,  —  "  one  of 
the  greatest  curses  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  affording  a  lucra- 
tive, if  irregular,  method  of  gaining  a  livelihood  to  thousands, 
and  exercising  a  rule  of  terrorism  and  pressure." 

The  army  had  also  to  be  organized  and  better  disciplined  ; 
and  to  this  the  sultan  devoted  himself  with  the  same  energy 
he  had  shown  in  other  departments. 

It  is  universally  conceded  that  the  men  of  the  Turkish 
army  are  admirable  soldiers,  and  almost  equally  acknowl- 
edged that  their  officers  are  little  competent  to  command 
them.  But  in  no  army  in  the  world  (unless  it  may  be  in 
the  British  army  in  India)  is  there  a  greater  variety  of  race 
and  hue  than  in  the  army  of  the  sultan  of  Turkey.1  Up  to 
less  than  ten  years  ago  uniformity  was  required  in  but  one 
thing,  —  all  were  expected  to  be  Mohammedans.  Chris- 
tians and  Jews  were  not  eligible  for  military  service ;  they 
had  to  pay  a  military  tax  instead  of  serving  in  the  army. 
Of  late  years,  however,  though  neither  enlisted  nor  con- 
scripted, they  have  been  received  as  substitutes. 

The  best  troops  in  the  army  that  held  the  Russians  in 
check  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1877  were  the 
Anatolian  battalions.  Turks  from  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
1  St.  James  Gazette,  1886. 


SULTAN  ABDUL  HAM  ID.  355 

made  splendid  soldiers ;  so  did  the  descendants  of  the  old 
Turks  who  had  settled  in  Bulgaria.  Strange  to  say,  the 
Circassians  showed  little  capacity  for  fight;  they  and  the 
Pomaks,  Bashi-Bazouks,  Syrian  Arabs,  and  Albanians  were 
more  given  to  plunder  and  to  outrage  than  to  regular  war- 
fare. Still,  properly  commanded,  regularly  paid,  decently 
fed  and  clothed,  the  Turkish  army  is  thought,  by  those 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  able  to  hold  its  own  against 
almost  any  army  in  the  world. 

"Few  sultans,"  says  a  writer  in  the  "Leisure  Hour,"  an 
English  magazine  which  has  given  excellent  articles  on 
eastern  European  affairs,  "  have  been  so  beloved  by  their 
subjects  as  Abdul  Hamid.  Indeed  he  is  to  them  quite  a 
new  type  of  sultan,  and  they  do  not  fail  to  appreciate  the 
novelty.  He  is  a  man  who  does  not  pass  his  days  in  his 
harem,  toying  with  his  slaves.  He  is  a  man  who  takes  a 
real  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  who,  far  from  following  the 
example  of  his  predecessors,  and  leaving  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  hands  of  some  clever  courtiers,  insists  on 
seeing  and  judging  all  things  for  himself."  In  this  way, 
however,  he  sometimes  causes  vexatious  delays. 

All  American  or  European  travellers  admitted  to  his 
presence  remark  upon  a  look  of  uneasiness  in  his  eyes,  and 
it  is  known  that  he  takes  extraordinary  precautions  to  secure 
his  own  safety.  In  this  his  prudence,  nay,  his  patriotism,  is 
to  be  applauded ;  for  he  is  the  sole  hope  of  Turkey,  —  a 
change  of  rulers  would  certainly  produce  confusion,  and 
might  destroy  his  cherished  projects  of  reform.  What 
sovereign  in  these  days  is  not  bound  to  take  precautions? 

"Abdul  Hamid  does  not  feel  himself  safe  even  in  his  own 
palace.  He  does  not  suspect  any  person  in  particular,  but  he  is 
on  his  guard  against  every  one.  He  knows  too  well  that  palace 
conspiracies  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  life  of  an  Oriental 
sovereign,  and  he  cannot  forget  the  tragic  events  that  led  to  his 
own  elevation  to  the  throne." 

This  account  of  Abdul  Hamid  is  corroborated  by  all 
other  accounts  that  I  have  read  of  him,  with  the  exception 


356      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

of  that  of  Count  E.  de  Ke"ratry,  published  in  1878,  when 
the  writer  was  burning  with  indignation  at  the  deposition 
and  imprisonment  of  Sultan  Murad,  and  when  the  new 
sultan  had  not  taken  the  reins  of  power  into  his  own  hands. 
The  ex-minister  from  the  United  States,  Mr.  Cox,  from 
whose  "  Diversions  of  a  Diplomat "  I  have  already  quoted, 
sums  up  in  eager  words  his  impressions  of  Abdul  Hamid. 
We  should  not  accept  of  course  the  dicta  of  an  ex-diplomat, 
on  the  subject  of  the  sovereign  to  whom  he  has  been 
accredited,  without  a  grain  of  salt;  but,  as  I  have  said 
already,  and  have  taken  pains  to  show  in  my  quotations,  his 
views  seem  to  be  fully  shared  by  others,  who,  speaking 
Turkish  and  admitted  to  personal  intercourse  with  the 
sultan,  have  been  better  qualified  than  himself  to  under- 
stand him.  He  says  :  — 

"  Since  the  accession  of  the  present  sultan  it  is  apparent  that 
his  rule  has  permeated  the  empire  with  a  wise  and  honest  sov- 
ereignty. I  have  observed  needfully  much  of  the  progress  of 
Turkey  during  the  last  three  decades,  and  from  what  I  have 
seen  of  it  I  believe  that  the  sultan,  being  himself  a  Turk,  is  the 
only  man  who  can  give  Turkey  the  proper  impulse  to  overcome 
the  vis  inertia  of  her  laggard  progress,  so  as  to  bring  her  forth 
into  the  light  and  liberty  of  a  new  civilization.  If  you  question 
the  ability  of  this  people  for  self-advancement,  look  for  the 
inspiration  of  their  remarkable  race  and  rule ;  and  you  will  find 
an  answer  in  those  rare  qualities  which  Gibbon  catalogued  when 
he  said,  *  The  Turks  are  distinguished  for  their  patience,  disci- 
pline, sobriety,  bravery,  honesty,  and  modesty.'  It  is  because 
of  these  solid  characteristics,  and  in  spite  of  the  harem,  in  spite 
of  autocratic  power,  in  spite  of  the  Janissary  and  the  seraglio, 
that  this  race  and  rule  remain  potent  in  the  Orient.  It  is  a 
good  omen  that  the  head  of  the  Turkish  government  to-day  is 
a  man  of  honest  intentions  and  clear  intellect,  and  that  he  gives 
unremittingly  his  time  to  the  service  of  his  people.  He  is  not 
merely  an  amiable  and  humane  prince,  but  wisely  versed  in 
statesmanship.  His  heart  is  touched  by  suffering,  and  his  views 
lean  strongly  to  that  toleration  of  the  various  races  and  religions 
of  his  realm  which  other  and  more  boastful  nations  would  do 
well  to  imitate." J 

1  See  note  on  page  404. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   TWO   DANUBIAN   KINGDOMS. SERVIA   AND   ROUMANIA. 

T  T  seems  a  distracting  task  to  unravel  so  tangled  a  skein  as 
-*-  the  history  of  the  Danubian  kingdoms,  provinces,  and 
principalities  (namely,  Servia,  Roumania,  Bosnia,  Herzego- 
vina, Montenegro,  and  Bulgaria)  during  the  last  half-cen- 
tury. When  the  Crimean  War  broke  out  in  1854  these 
countries  were  more  or  less  part  of  the  sultan's  dominions. 
Some  enjoyed  autonomy,  but  paid  tribute ;  some  were 
Turkish  provinces  under  the  capricious  rule  of  a  Turkish 
pasha;  all  have  now  been  rent  out  of  the  sultan's  hand. 
Two  (Servia  and  Roumania)  are  independent  kingdoms; 
two  (Montenegro  and  Bulgaria)  are  kingdoms  in  every- 
thing but  name ;  while  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  have  been 
virtually  united  to  Austria  • .  and  heartily  as  they  hated  the 
Turks,  they  do  not  seem  satisfied  with  the  exchange. 

The  united  wisdom  of  the  Great  Powers  at  Berlin  in  1878 
endeavored  to  erect  these  feeble  States  into  a  barrier  be- 
tween Russia  and  Constantinople.  The  story  to  be  told  in 
these  last  chapters  is  the  story  of  the  erection  of  this  bar- 
rier, and  of  the  persistent  efforts  made  by  Russia  to  break 
it  down. 

The  present  czar,  as  we  have  seen,  is  Slavonic  to  the 
backbone.  A  Russian  Russia  is  his  dream  and  his  ideal. 
He  is  not  a  Pan-Slavist.  He  is  not  willing  to  sacrifice  Rus- 
sia for  Slavs,  but  within  the  bounds  of  Holy  Russia  Slavs 
are  not  only  to  be  the  dominant  race,  they  are,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  be  the  only  one.  The  idea  of  a  Pan-Slavonic 
federation  is,  however,  all-powerful  among  the  educated 


358       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

class  in  his  dominions.  It  is  almost  as  dangerous  to  the 
emperor  as  Nihilism ;  indeed,  it  has  been  thought  to  result 
in  Nihilistic  practices. 

The  Slav  peoples  of  Europe  are  the  Russians,  the  Poles, 
the  peasantry  of  the  Baltic  provinces  of  Russia,  the  Servians, 
the  Montenegrins,  the  population  of  Bosnia  and  Herzego- 
vina, the  inhabitants  of  the  restless  dependencies  of  the 
kingdom  of  Hungary,  the  Bulgarians,  who,  although  not 
pure  Slavs,  are  closely  affiliated  with  them  in  language  and 
religion,  and  the  Czechs  of  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Austrian 
Galicia,  —  a  turbulent  race,  who  are  at  this  moment  trying 
the  patience  of  the  Austrian  emperor. 

In  the  midst  of  this  Slav  population  lie  two  nations  in- 
tensely hostile  to  Slavs  :  the  Magyars  (or  Hungarians) ,  and 
the  Roumanians.  To  fuse  these  into  a  Slavonian  federa- 
tion with  their  own  consent  would  seem  impossible ;  yet  to 
obtain  their  submission  seems  indispensable  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  Pan-Slavonic  idea. 

The  Slavs  in  Europe  are  said,  roughly,  to  number  eighty 
millions.  There  are  Slavs  under  the  rule  of  the  German 
Empire ;  the  Reichstag  contains  a  considerable  Polish  vote, 
representing  German  Slavs ;  the  Slavs  in  Austria  are  esti- 
mated to  number  thirteen  millions ;  those  in  Servia  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half.  In  Roumania,  Bulgaria,  and  Eastern  Rou- 
melia  they  abound,  and  if,  as  they  say,  "the  Germans 
have  reached  their  day;  the  English  their  mid-day;  the 
French  their  afternoon ;  the  Italians  their  evening ;  the 
Spaniards  their  night ;  but  the  Slavs  stand  on  the  threshold 
of  their  morning,"  powerful  empires  must  go  down  before 
them,  and  the  present  policy  and  civilization  of  Europe 
must  be  greatly  changed. 

But  among  the  various  branches  of  the  old  Slavonic  stock 
there  is  no  point  of  unity.  "  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
Slav  language.  A  Russian  does  not  understand  a  Bulgarian ; 
a  Bulgarian  does  not  understand  a  Pole ;  a  Servian  does 
not  understand  a  Czech.  These  various  so-called  Slav 
communities  have  no  common  grammar ;  not  even  an  en- 


SERVIA  AND  ROU MANIA. 


359 


tirely  common  alphabet.  They  have  each  of  them  a  distinct 
literature,  such  as  it  is,  a  different  history,  and  different 
traditions."  The  utmost  that  can  be  said  in  support  of  their 
nationality  is  that  far  back  in  history,  "  even  earlier  than  the 
days  of  Herodotus,"  they  seem  to  have  migrated  from  east- 
ern Asia,  —  not  in  one  vast  horde,  like  other  conquering 
barbarians,  but  in  tribes  and  families,  settling,  as  they  jour- 
neyed westward  from  the  Caspian,  on  unoccupied  plains. 

The  Servians  claim  descent  from  an  organized  commun- 
ity of  Slavs  invited  by  the  Emperor  Heraclius  to  people 
Danubian  lands  laid  waste  by  the  Avars.  When  they 
adopted  Christianity  part  joined  the  Greek  Church,  and 
part  the  Church  of  Rome.  For  a  brief  period,  during  the 
reign  of  one  man,  Stephen  Dushan  (from  1333  to  1355), 
there  was  a  powerful  Servian  kingdom,  including  Bosnia, 
Herzegovina,  and  other  neighboring  territories;  but  after 
the  downfall  of  Dushan,  and  the  disastrous  fight  of  his  suc- 
cessor at  Kossova,  the  component  parts  of  this  Servian  em- 
pire fell  asunder.  In  course  of  time  the  Servians  and  all 
others  of  their  race  along  the  Danube  were  conquered  by 
the  Ottomans.  The  nobles,  to  preserve  their  privileges, 
adopted  Mohammedanism,  and  the  land  became  "  one  of 
the  dark  places  of  the  earth,  full  of  the  habitations  of 
cruelty." 

About  the  year  1 804,  when  the  attention  of  the  world  was 
fixed  upon  the  mighty  conqueror  in  western  Europe,  and 
there  was  little  interest  to  spare  for  a  peasant  insurrection 
in  an  obscure  province  of  Turkey,  "  a  simple  peasant  of 
darker  complexion  than  is  usual  with  his  countrymen,  and 
thence  Kara  George,  or  Black  George,  by  name,  fled  to  the 
mountains,  a  ruined  man,  leaving  a  home  desolated  by  the 
Turks.  With  a  heart  on  fire  for  revenge  he  gathered 
together  a  number  of  men  made  desperate  like  himself,  and 
became  a  sort  of  Robin  Hood."  He  was,  however,  far 
more  ferocious  than  that  genial  outlaw.  By  degrees  the 
lawless  acts  of  himself  and  of  his  band  became  extolled  as 
heroic  deeds  in  a  righteous  cause  by  the  sympathizing  peas- 


360      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

antry ;  for  to  seize  and  plunder  a  wealthy  Moslem  was  in 
their  eyes  no  crime. 

At  a  great  meeting  in  the  depths  of  a  dark  forest  held  by 
Servians  ripe  for  insurrection,  Kara  George  was  nominated 
their  leader.  "  But  he  stepped  out  of  the  crowd  and  cried  : 
<  Brothers  !  why  do  you  call  for  me  ?  A  leader  of  Serbs 
should  be  mild  and  forbearing.  I  am  an  angry  man,  unable 
to  keep  my  temper.  Choose  some  one  else.'  '  We  need 
an  angry  man.  We  want  a  man  of  iron  ! '  was  the  reply. 
'  But,  by  God  ! '  cried  Kara  George,  '  if  I  order  a  man  to 
do  anything,  and  he  doeth  it  not,  I  shall  slash  off  his 
head  ! '  A  shout  went  up  :  '  You  are  the  man  we  want ! 
You  are  our  chief  and  leader  ! '  "  1 

After  this  the  successes  of  the  patriots  under  such  leader- 
ship struck  terror  into  the  ruling  race.  There  was  a  swift 
rush  of  the  Turks  into  their  fortresses,  and  for  a  moment 
the  Servians  found  themselves  a  free  people,  but  with  a  ter- 
rible war  impending,  in  which  no  mercy  would  be  shown. 
They  were  not,  however,  fighting  for  independence ;  their 
struggle  was  simply  for  deliverance  from  oppression.  They 
offered  to  submit  to  the  sultan  on  condition  that  the  Moslem 
military  aristocracy  should  leave  the  province,  and  that  its 
government  should  be  administered  by  a  pasha  appointed 
by  the  sultan  himself;  that  an  improvement  should  be  made 
in  the  methods  of  taxation,  and  only  such  taxes  exacted  as 
had  been  fixed  in  1773  by  a  firman  from  the  sultan  J  that 
courts  of  justice  should  be  established  throughout  the 
province ;  that  towns  should  choose  their  own  mayors,  sub- 
ject to  the  approval  of  the  governing  pasha ;  that  Christians 
might  build  monasteries  and  churches  ;  and  that  they  might 
choose  themselves  a  chief  through  whom  should  pass  all 
communications  between  the  Sublime  Porte  and  the  Ser- 
vian race. 

These  terms  were  not  listened  to  for  a  moment,  and  the 
war  was  carried  on  with  increasing  ferocity  till  1812;  the 
Servians  riot  only  fighting  the  Turks,  but  exhausting  their 
strength  by  factious  squabbles  among  themselves. 
1  Cf.  British  Quarterly  Review. 


SERVIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  361 

Another  leader  had  risen  up  among  them,  —  Milosch 
Obrenovitch,  "the  pig-driver;"  and  to  this  day  the  dy- 
nastic quarrel  between  the  descendants  of  Kara  George 
and  the  descendants  of  Milosch  Obrenovitch  has  not  been 
terminated. 

When  Russia  and  Turkey  signed  a  treaty  of  peace  at 
Bucharest  on  the  eve  of  the  French  invasion  of  Russia,  it 
was  stipulated  that  the  Servians  should  be  pardoned  for 
their  rebellion.  The  sultan  promised  reforms  in  the  inter- 
nal administration  of  their  province,  and  was  himself  to  fix 
the  amount  of  their  taxation. 

Like  all  Turkish  promises  made  by  treaty,  these  failed  in 
the  performance.  The  Servians  again  took  arms,  but  the 
forces  let  loose  on  their  luckless  land  were  overwhelming. 
The  panic-stricken  peasants  fled  in  crowds  into  Austria. 
Servia  was  once  more  conquered  "  and  lay  wounded  and 
bleeding  at  the  feet  of  Asiatic  soldiers." 

Kara  George  fled  over  the  frontier  with  his  people,  but 
Milosch  Obrenovitch  remained  behind.  He  was  kept  in 
the  fortress  of  Belgrade  as  a  sort  of  hostage,  while  horrors 
of  Turkish  vengeance  fell  upon  his  people.  Before  his  eyes 
the  Turkish  pasha  impaled  one  hundred  and  seventy  Ser- 
vians before  the  walls  of  the  fortress,  and  tortures  of  all 
kinds  were  inflicted  upon  prisoners.  "  Milosch,  of  course, 
was  an  object  of  intense  suspicion,  and  was  in  hourly  ex- 
pectation of  death.  ...  He  determined  to  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  another  rising ;  but  how  to  get  out  of  Belgrade 
was  a  difficult  question.  He  was  rich  and  offered  the  pasha 
a  large  sum  for  the  ransom  of  certain  Servian  prisoners,  pro- 
posing to  pay  down  half  the  money  if  he  were  suffered  to 
pass  over  into  Austria  and  raise  the  rest  by  selling  a  herd 
of  swine.  The  pasha  consented,  though  reluctantly,  and 
Milosch  plunged  at  once  into  the  heart  of  Servia." 

In  the  spring  of  1815,  when  Europe  was  gathering  to- 
gether all  her  strength  for  the  great  struggle  at  Waterloo, 
an  immense  assembly  of  Servians  was  again  held  in  the 
dark  depths  of  a  forest,  and  Milosch  Obrenovitch,  in  full 


362       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

fighting  costume,  waving  aloft  the  flag  of  Servia  (a  white 
cross  on  a  red  ground),  roused  his  countrymen  to  arms,  and 
offered  himself  as  their  leader. 

Again  the  war  raged ;  but  the  Turks  at  length  proposed 
a  peace,  addressing  themselves  to  Milosch  as  the  champion 
of  his  people.  At  that  crisis  the  old  hero,  Kara  George, 
stepped  forth  from  his  exile  with  the  design  of  breaking  up 
the  negotiation ;  but  a  few  days  later  he  was  murdered  in 
his  bed.  Peace  was  made  with  the  Turks,  and  Milosch  was 
recognized  as  head  of  his  nation. 

When  Milosch,  however,  became  a  ruler,  he  ceased  to 
be  a  hero.  He  grew  insolent,  stupid,  and  cruel.  His  rule 
became  so  oppressive  that  it  effaced  from  the  minds  of  his 
subjects  the  recollection  of  his  services,  and  they  drove  him 
from  their  country.  His  son  Michael  succeeded  him,  but 
died  soon  after.  His  second  son,  Milan,  came  after  Michael. 
He  ruled  so  badly  that  his  subjects  drove  him  into  exile  in 
1842.  They  then  called  Alexander  Karageorgevitch,  son 
of  their  first  leader,  to  the  throne.  Him  they  exiled  in 
1858. 

After  this  the  Skouptchina,  or  National  Assembly,  recalled 
old  Milosch  Obrenovitch,  who  was  living  in  Austria.  He 
reigned  for  a  year,  and  on  dying  was  succeeded  by  his 
youngest  son,  named  Michael,  like  the  eldest.  An  English 
writer  and  journalist l  who  claims  to  have  known  Prince 
Michael  well  says  of  him :  — 

"  A  stancher,  more  straight-forward,  and  more  single-minded 
man  than  Michael  Obrenovitch  III.  I  never  knew,  nor  one 
whose  decisions  upon  any  issue  submitted  to  his  judgment  were 
more  uniformly  dictated  by  a  principle  of  rectitude.  In  any  coun- 
try he  would  have  achieved  distinction,  so  clear  was  his  intellect 
and  so  indomitable  his  energy.  For  Servia,  in  which  his  lot 
was  cast,  he  was  a  thousand  times  too  honest,  intelligent,  and 
incorruptible.  His  virtues,  in  fact,  were  a  standing  reproach 
to  his  subjects  by  contrast  with  their  vices,  and  the  time  came 
when,  unable  any  longer  to  endure  the  rule  of  so  virtuous  and 
chivalrous  a  gentleman,  they  slaughtered  him  in  cold  blood." 

*  Monarchs  I  Have  Met,  by  W.  Beatty-Kingston. 


SERVIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  363 

Meantime,  in  1862,  a  quarrel  between  some  Turkish 
soldiers  in  the  garrison  at  Belgrade  and  the  Servian  popu- 
lation of  that  city  led  to  the  bombardment  of  the  town  by 
the  Turkish  commander  of  the  fortress,  which  Turkey  had 
been  permitted  to  retain  as  a  concession  to  her  dignity. 
After  much  diplomatic  dispute  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  resigned 
the  stronghold,  the  most  important  military  position  on  the 
Danube,  into  Prince  Michael's  hands. 

The  Turkish  evacuation  took  place  with  great  ceremony 
on  April  12,  1867.  Thereafter  the  prince  bent  all  his 
energies  to  give  to  Servia  a  new  and  really  independent 
life,  and  by  his  exertions  she  was  placed  in  a  better  position 
than  she  had  been  since  the  fall  of  Stephen  Dushan,  five 
centuries  before.  Mr.  Kingston  says,  however :  "  Prince 
Michael's  throne  was  not  lined  with  swan's-down.  He  had 
a  great  deal  to  put  up  with  from  his  subjects,  —  as  difficult 
to  lead  or  drive  as  their  own  pigs."  In  a  conversation  with 
Mr.  Kingston  the  prince  said,  not  long  before  his  death,  — 

"  My  father  was  a  man  of  humble  origin  and  but  little  instruc- 
tion, but  he  was  a  genius,  and  performed  what  was  little  short 
of  a  miracle  in  raising  the  Servian  nationality  up  out  of  the 
mire  into  which  it  had  been  trodden.  I  am  no  genius,  but  I 
was  brought  up  abroad,  under  the  influences  of  civilization,  and 
I  have  worked  very  hard  to  profit  by  the  advantages  which 
Providence  has  bestowed  on  me.  The  sultan's  generosity  has 
made  me  a  free  prince  of  a  free  country.  Never  believe  that 
I  shall  break  my  word  to  the  sultan  or  fail  to  keep  my  faith 
to  the  Sublime  Porte.  But  in  many  things  my  ministers  and 
the  leading  men  of  the  province  are  against  me.  As  long  as 
I  believe  myself  to  be  right,  I  shall  try  to  carry  out  my  own 
convictions.  God  knows  whether  I  shall  succeed,  for  many 
of  my  own  countrymen  hate  me,  though  I  have  never  done 
any  man  a  wrong  willingly." 

While  Prince  Michael  was  thus  resolved  to  be  true  to  his 
engagements  to  the  sultan,  Peter  Karageorgevitch,  the  rep- 
resentative of  Kara  George's  family,  was  in  sympathy  with 
Russia,  and  quietly  conducted  a  conspiracy  for  a  change  of 
rulers  and  a  change  of  policy. 


364     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

"  It  was  Prince  Michael's  custom  to  walk  daily  after  his 
hours  of  work  in  the  Park  of  Toptchidere,  a  lovely  spot  about 
three  miles  from  Belgrade.  Here  he  was  wont  to  throw  off  all 
restraint,  and  accompanied  by  some  of  the  ladies  of  his  family, 
and  perhaps  an  aide-de-camp,  to  spend  an  hour  in  the  glades 
of  the  forest.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  loth  of  June,  1868,  the 
prince  was  thus  engaged,  when  he  met  three  individuals  in 
European  costume.  As  the  park  was  open  to  any  decent  citizen 
this  caused  no  surprise.  They  saluted  his  Highness  and  passed 
him.  No  sooner  was  his  back  turned  than  the  crash  of  revol- 
vers told  of  a  tragedy.  The  prince  fell,  and  the  murderers 
rushed  on  him,  stabbing  and  gashing  the  dying  man  with  their 
knives.  The  two  ladies,  his  relatives,  were  also  attacked,  one 
being  desperately  wounded,  the  other  killed.  Luckily  the  vet- 
eran minister  Garashanin  was  within  hearing,  and  when  he  had 
ascertained  the  cause  of  the  pistol  shots,  he  leaped  upon  a  horse 
and  galloped  into  Belgrade  before  the  conspirators  in  that  city 
were  quite  prepared.  Having  alarmed  the  authorities,  got  the 
troops  under  arms,  and  the  police  on  the  alert,  the  assassins 
and  their  accomplices  were  seized ;  and  thus  was  a  civil  dynastic 
war  averted,  for  it  became  evident  that  the  movement  was  in 
favor  of  the  deposed  dynasty  —  the  Karageorgevitch.  A  long 
trial  of  the  conspirators  ensued,  and  twenty  suffered  death  for 
participation  in  the  plot."  x 

Thus,  mainly  through  the  exertions  of  one  man,  the  suc- 
cession of  young  Milan,  nephew  and  heir  presumptive  of 
Prince  Michael,  was  secured ;  and  Servia  passed  through 
the  crisis  without  disorder  or  civil  strife.  A  regency  was 
appointed  to  guard  the  young  prince  and  to  govern  the 
country  during  his  four  years'  minority. 

This  lad,  when  ten  years  of  age,  had  been  sent  to  Paris 
for  his  education.  He  was  placed  at  the  Lyce"e  of  Louis  le 
Grand,  but  he  had  also  a  private  tutor.  This  personage 
was  not  deficient  in  learning,  but  he  was  very  Bohemian  in 
his  tastes  and  associations.  He  frequented  certain  cafes 
in  Paris,  assembling-places  of  the  class  of  men  who  subse- 
quently became  leaders  of  the  Commune.  There  he  would 
sit  for  hours  talking  politics  and  literature  with  Cluseret, 

1  British  Quarterly  Review. 


KING  MILAN  OF  SERVIA. 


SRRVIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  365 

Courbet,  Felix  Pyat,  Rochefort,  and  even  Ferre  and  Raoul 
Rigault.  The  boy  sat  by  his  side,  and  listened  while  they 
talked.  It  was  an  unusual  training  for  an  heir-presumptive. 

Prince  Milan  was  fourteen  when  his  uncle  was  assassi- 
nated. He  grew  up  a  handsome  young  man,  rather  too 
much  addicted  to  the  adornment  of  his  person,  but  still 
princely  and  popular.  When  he  came  of  age  he  indulged 
himself  with  a  visit  to  Paris,  where  he  found  most  of  his  old 
associates  either  shot  or  transported  to  New  Caledonia. 
Marshal  MacMahon,  then  President  of  France,  gave  him 
the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  He  sowed  a 
plentiful  crop  of  wild  oats  during  his  travels,  and  has  ever 
since  been  reaping  them. 

In  1875  ne  married  Natalie  de  Keczko,  daughter  of  a 
colonel  in  the  Russian  army.  This  lady  soon  became  popu- 
lar among  the  Servians.  She  was  quick-witted  and  fasci- 
nating, and  was  devoted  to  her  husband's  interests,  in  spite 
of  his  notorious  unfaithfulness  and  his  habit  of  gambling. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  there  have  been  two  parties 
in  Servia,  —  one  aristocratic,  or  Austrian ;  the  other,  led  by 
M.  Ristics,  radical  or  Russian.  It  was  to  this  last  that 
Prince  Milan,  on  attaining  his  majority,  seemed  to  incline. 
His  early  Parisian  associations  may  have  familiarized  him 
with  radicalism ;  the  influence  of  his  wife,  and  the  persua- 
sions of  Russian  agents,  servants  of  the  "mission,"  may 
have  inclined  him  to  Russia.  Prince  Michael  said  to  Mr. 
Kingston :  — 

"  It  is  constantly  being  impressed  on  me,  and  in  a  very  ur- 
gent manner,  as  well  by  some  of  my  most  eminent  country- 
men as  by  Russian  gentlemen  who  honor  me  with  their  visits, 
that  Servia  has  to  look  to  Russia  for  all  manner  of  future 
benefits  and  aggrandizement,  and  that  she  is  the  only  friend  we 
have  in  Europe." 

The  revolt  against  the  Turks  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
in  1875,  which  was  at  first  rather  a  peasant  rising  against 
tax-gatherers  than  a  rebellion,  roused  the  Servians  to  fury. 


366       RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

"  Hatred  to  the  Turk,"  Prince  Michael  said,  "  is  in  their 
blood." 

Austrian  influence  restrained  the  Servian  government  for 
a  while  from  taking  part  in  the  quarrel ;  but  Servia  is  only 
separated  from  Bosnia  by  the  river  Drina,  and  numbers  of 
Servians  passed  over  the  frontier  to  fight  the  Turks,  while 
pressure  was  brought  upon  the  prince  and  his  ministers  to 
force  them  to  reverse  the  policy  of  Prince  Michael  and 
take  sides  with  the  insurgents. 

These  councils,  combined  with  popular  enthusiasm,  pre- 
vailed. War  was  declared  with  the  Turks.  Russian  officers 
flocked  into  Servia  to  join  the  Servian  army,  and  were  much 
disappointed  with  all  they  found  there.  Then  came  the 
declaration  of  war  between  Russia  and  Turkey  in  the  spring 
of  1877.  Before  that  time,  however,  Servia,  having  been 
worsted  in  every  encounter  by  Osman  Pasha,  had  made 
peace,  and  took  no  part  in  the  Russian  War. 

Servia  was  made  a  kingdom  in  1882,  chiefly  through  the 
influence  of  Austria,  and  after  that  the  Western  world  seems 
to  have  lost  all  interest  in  her  affairs  for  several  years.  She 
was  supposed  to  be  growing  in  order,  peace,  prosperity,  and 
education.  The  only  unsatisfactory  rumors  that  reached 
the  general  public  were  reports  of  disagreements  between 
Queen  Natalie  and  her  husband. 

King  Milan,  after  Austria  had  promoted  his  elevation, 
had  changed  his  political  views.  He  had  become  more 
aristocratic  and  more  Austrian ;  less  Russian  and  radical. 

In  1886  Eastern  Roumelia  made  a  sudden  revolution. 
She  cast  off  the  Christian  governor  assigned  to  her  by  the 
sultan,  and  implored  Prince  Alexander  of  Bulgaria  to  annex 
her  to  his  dominions.  This  was  no  part  of  the  policy  of 
Russia.  It  seemed  possible  it  would  make  Alexander  of 
Bulgaria  too  powerful ;  and  he  was  a  prince  loathed  by  the 
Russian  emperor,  as  well  as  by  the  German  chancellor. 
Neither  was  it  the  policy  of  Austria  to  increase  the  limits  of 
Bulgaria,  for  the  prosperity  of  that  semi-Slavonic  state 
might  increase  the  restlessness  of  her  own  Slavonic  popula- 


SERVIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  367 

tion.  She  therefore  encouraged  King  Milan  to  oppose  the 
aggrandizement  of  Bulgaria,  and  (taking  a  leaf  out  of  the 
rules  and  regulations  of  the  Great  Powers)  to  put  forth  a 
claim  that  if  Bulgaria,  by  violating  the  Treaty  of  Berlin, 
acquired  Eastern  Roumelia,  Servia  should  be  compensated 
by  acquiring  two  districts  belonging  to  Bulgaria. 

King  Milan  took  the  diplomatists  of  Europe  by  surprise 
when  he  declared  war  against  Bulgaria.  Two  States  re- 
cently emancipated  from  Turkey  seizing  each  other  by  the 
throat,  was  a  spectacle  that  disappointed  philanthropists 
and  disconcerted  politicians. 

Hostilities  were  very  brief.  Almost  before  the  Western 
world  had  heard  of  the  declaration  of  war,  Prince  Alexander 
with  sixteen  thousand  men  had  defeated  a  much  larger 
force  of  Servians  at  Slivnitza,  a  place  nearly  in  the  heart  of 
Bulgaria.  He  had  pursued  them  as  they  made  a  rapid  re- 
treat into  Servia,  and  was  going  on  to  follow  up  his  victory, 
when  he  was  forced  to  make  peace  by  Austria,  who  threat- 
ened to  join  the  Serbs  if  he  advanced  into  their  country. 
"  I  cannot  fight  the  whole  world,"  he  said,  throwing  open 
the  palms  of  his  hands  in  a  deprecating  manner. 

The  Servians  were  so  disgusted  with  the  war,  and  with 
the  way  their  king  had  conducted  it,  that  but  for  the  popu- 
larity of  Queen  Natalie  they  would  have  dethroned  him. 

Instead  of  being  grateful  to  his  queen  for  her  influence 
in  his  behalf,  King  Milan  became  jealous  of  her  popularity, 
—  not  jealous  in  the  French  meaning  of  the  word,  for 
Queen  Natalie's  faithfulness  as  a  wife  had  not  been  called 
in  question,  —  but  jealous  of  her  political  influence,  which, 
now  that  he  was  in  alliance  with  Austria,  it  displeased  him 
should  be  exerted  in  favor  of  the  czar. 

Prompted  by  this  jealousy  he  resolved  on  a  divorce,  but 
as  this  could  not  be  procured  by  ecclesiastical  means,  he 
took  King  Henry  VIII.  for  his  example,  and  applied  to  a 
body  of  lawyers  to  grant  him  a  release  from  the  obligations 
of  his  marriage. 

By  this  means  he  obtained  a  sham  divorce,  and  exiled 


368     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

Queen  Natalie  from  Servia.  She  was  followed  to  a  German 
watering-place  by  agents  of  her  husband,  who  forcibly  ab- 
ducted her  son,  Prince  Alexander,  then  a  boy  ten  years 
old,  and  carried  him  back  to  Servia,  in  violation  of  the 
rights  of  the  State  in  which  they  found  him. 

King  Milan,  as  an  offset  to  his  unpopularity  caused  by 
his  domestic  conduct,  next  endeavored  to  regain  favor  with 
the  radical,  or  Russian  party,  led  by  M.  Ristics ;  but  his 
efforts  to  do  this  having  failed,  he  took  the  world  by  sur- 
prise by  his  sudden  abdication. 

His  son  Alexander  was  proclaimed  king,  and  a  regency 
was  appointed.  The  lad  was  forbidden  to  hold  intercourse 
with  his  father  or  his  mother.  It  is  said  he  was  deprived 
of  playfellows,  and  confined  strictly  to  the  society  of  the 
regents  who  governed  in  his  stead.  Queen  Natalie  betook 
herself  to  St.  Petersburg.  King  Milan  went  to  Monte  Carlo, 
where  he  soon  lost  at  the  gaming  tables  the  large  sum  of 
money  given  him  by  the  Servians  to  facilitate  his  abdication. 

The  regents  were  perplexed  by  constant  intrigues;  now 
they  feared  that  in  some  way  the  mother's  influence  would 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  her  boy;  now  it  was  the  father 
who  was  supposed  to  be  conspiring  for  his  own  restoration. 
But  on  April  13,  1893,  the  toils,  cares,  responsibilities,  and 
anxieties  of  these  gentlemen  came  to  an  end.  The  young 
King  Alexander,  born  Aug.  14,  1876,  lacked  four  months 
of  his  legal  majority.  In  view  of  his  approaching  manhood 
the  restrictions  imposed  on  him  had  been  relaxed,  and  he 
was  residing  in  the  Royal  Palace  of  Belgrade  with  consider- 
able personal  liberty. 

Besides  the  continual  uneasiness  caused  by  the  rival 
intrigues  of  the  royal  parents,  public  affairs  in  Servia  had 
gone  badly  during  the  regency. 

"  For  some  months  it  had  been  a  question  whether  under 
existing  circumstances  Servia  would  not  relapse  into  anarchy, 
and  the  Obrenovitch  dynasty  give  place  to  the  Karageorgevitch, 
whose  representative  was  supposed  to  be  devoted  to  the  inter- 
ests of  Russia.  The  aristocratic  or  Austrian  party,  whose 


QUEEN  NATHALIE. 


SERV1A  AND  ROU MANIA.  369 

followers  had  named  themselves  Liberals,  was  the  party  in 
power.  The  feuds  between  the  Liberals  and  the  Radicals 
were  irreconcilable.  The  regents  recently,  to  secure  a  triumph 
in  the  Skouptchina,  had  had  recourse  to  force  and  fraud.  The 
result  of  disregard  of  law  in  the  highest  quarters  was  general 
disorder  and  prostration  of  business.  Society  needed  a  savior, 
and  a  plan  was  formed  by  the  young  king  which  worked  with 
all  the  precision  of  Louis  Napoleon's  famous  coup  d'Etat,  save 
only  that  it  was  accomplished  without  bloodshed,  and  with  as 
little  violence  as  possible  to  personal  liberty. 

"  King  Alexander  invited  all  the  regents  and  all  their  minis- 
ters to  a  State  banquet  at  the  palace,  on  the  evening  of 
Thursday,  April  13,  to  celebrate  his  having  creditably  passed 
the  regular  examination  prescribed  for  Servian  students.  All 
came,  and  the  banquet  proceeded,  Alexander  occupying  the 
place  of  toast-master  at  the  head  of  the  table.  Meantime, 
police  and  soldiers  occupied  the  houses  of  his  distinguished 
guests  and  all  the  public  buildings.  A  sufficient  force  was  at 
the  same  time  gathered  about  the  palace  in  which  the  ban- 
queters were  making  merry.  After  the  third  course,  when  the 
champagne  had  circulated  freely,  an  aide-de-camp  whispered  to 
the  king  that  all  was  ready.  Thereupon  Alexander,  with  great 
self-possession,  rose  and  said :  '  Gentlemen,  for  four  years  you 
have  administered  in  my  name  the  kingly  power.  I  thank  you 
heartily  for  the  trouble  you  have  taken.  Now,  however,  I  feel 
able  to  administer  the  kingly  power  myself,  and  I  will  exercise 
it  from  this  moment.  I  beg  you  therefore  at  once  to  hand  me 
your  resignations  in  writing.'  Needless  to  say  the  regents  and 
the  ministers  were  taken  by  surprise.  They  refused  to  comply 
with  the  young  king's  demand.  He  said  nothing,  but  left  the 
room.  Presently  the  aide-de-camp  returned,  and  called  upon 
the  regents  thrice  in  the  king's  name  to  resign.  Upon  their 
refusing  they  were  conveyed  away  under  guard  to  another 
palace  to  spend  the  night.  M.  Dokitch  was  appointed  Pre- 
mier, a  new  cabinet  of  Radicals  was  organized,  and  writs 
were  issued  for  a  new  election."  1 

The  spirited  action  of  the  young  king  made  him  popular 
both  with  the  army  and  the  people.  The  new  prime  minis- 
ter gave  solemn  assurance  that  neither  Russia  nor  Austria, 

1  Baltimore  Sun,  April  28,  1893. 
24 


370      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

King  Milan  nor  Queen  Natalie,  had  inspired  the  movement ; 
only  the  king  and  himself,  he  affirmed,  were  in  the  secret. 

Another  surprise  followed  this  event.  King  Milan  and 
Queen  Natalie  were  reconciled,  and  are  living,  to  all 
appearance  happily,  in  a  castle  in  their  son's  dominions ; 
although  the  sham  divorce  occasions  legal  embarrassment, 
it  being  difficult  to  undo  what  it  appears  had  never  been 
done.  King  Milan  asserts  that  he  has  never  ceased  to 
be  in  love  with  his  wife.  Queen  Natalie  professes  her- 
self willing  to  believe  him.  There  are  people  who  have 
hinted  that  King  Milan,  having  squandered  his  resources 
at  Monte  Carlo,  has  found  it  prudent  to  be  received  back 
into  his  wife's  favor,  and  to  share  her  fortune. 

The  Kingdom  of  Roumania,  once  the  Turkish  provinces 
of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  is  peopled  by  the  descendants 
of  Roman  military  colonists  and  of  the  ancient  Dacians. 
Its  religion  is  that  of  the  Greek  Church ;  its  language  is  a 
corrupt  Latin.  To  the  north  it  borders  upon  Austrian 
•Poland  ;  on  the  east  it  is  separated  by  the  River  Pruth 
from  Bessarabia  (a  province  given  to  it  after  the  Crimean 
War,  but  restored  to  Russia  by  the  Berlin  Congress)  ;  on 
the  west  it  borders  on  the  Slavonic  dependencies  of  the 
kingdom  of  Hungary;  while  the  Danube  is  its  southern 
boundary,  and  divides  it  from  Bulgaria. 

Under  the  earlier  Mohammedan  sultans  its  Christian 
inhabitants  were  granted  the  free  exercise  of  their  faith,  and 
the  appointment  of  their  own  prince  or  hospodar ;  but  after 
Moldavia  had  been  surrendered  to  Austria,  and  reconquered 
by  the  Turks  in  1737,  the  Porte  deprived  its  inhabitants  of 
the  privilege  of  appointing  their  own  sovereign,  and  every 
seven  years  sold  the  dignity  of  waiwode  (as  the  ruler  was 
then  styled)  to  the  highest  bidder  among  the  Greek  resi- 
dents of  Constantinople.  The  rule  of  these  Fanariots,  as 
they  were  called,  from  the  Fanar,  the  Greek  aristocratic 
quarter  in  Constantinople,  was  utterly  distasteful  to  their 
subjects,  and  in  1821  the  Turkish  government  tried  ap- 


SERBIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  371 

pointing  boyards,  or  native  noblemen,  with  no  better  suc- 
cess. "  Hospodar  "  was  the  title  of  these  rulers  in  Moldavia, 
while  "  caimacan  "  (meaning  "  deputy  of  the  grand  vizier  ") 
was  the  name  of  the  governor  of  Wallachia,  the  sister 
State. 

In  1828,  after  the  Treaty  of  Unkiar  Skelessi,  Russia 
assumed  a  protectorate  over  Moldavia  and  Wallachia ;  but 
though  one  of  the  Russian  governors  displayed  both  energy 
and  integrity,  the  rule  of  the  Porte  was  preferred  by  the 
people  to  that  of  St.  Petersburg. 

The  aversion  of  the  Roumans,  as  the  Moldo-Wallachians 
call  themselves,  to  the  Russians  is  two-fold.  The  Roumans 
are  not  Slavs,  but  consider  themselves  Romans ;  and  the 
proudest  of  their  ancestors  in  the  palmiest  days  of  the 
Roman  Empire  could  not  have  been  more  disdainful  of 
the  barbarians  of  Scythia.  They  are  of  the  Greek  Church, 
it  is  true,  but  of  the  Greek  Church  of  Byzantine  origin ; 
not  that  offshoot  of  it  which,  under  the  headship  of  the 
czar,  is  the  religion  of  Russia. 

There  is  in  Paris,  in  the  Rue  Neuve  de  Berry,  a  beautiful 
little  Russian  church,  erected  shortly  before  the  revolution 
of  1848.  "What!"  cries  a  Moldo-Wallachian  preacher, 
"  Roumans  to  frequent  a  Russian  place  of  worship  ?  Is  it 
then  forgotten  that  they  can  never  enter  its  walls  ?  —  that 
Wallachians  who  die  in  Paris  declare  that  the  presence  of  a 
Russian  priest  would  be  an  insult  at  their  tomb?  .  .  .  Our 
hatred  is  perpetuated  by  the  difference  of  language.  The 
Russian  tongue  is  Slavonic ;  ours  is  Latin." 

A  Moldavian  writer  says :  "  There  is  less  sympathy  be- 
tween the  Rouman  and  the  Slav  than  between  the  Rouman 
and  the  Ottoman.  Any  attempt  to  assimilate  the  Rou- 
mans, the  Turks,  the  Slavonians,  and  the  Greeks  would  be 
fruitless."  * 

Here,  then,  we  are  met  full  face  with  one  of  the  difficulties 
of  the  Eastern  Question. 

1  Black  wood's  Magazine,  1858;  Williamson's  Wallachia  and  Mol- 
davia. 


372      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

From  1721  to  1828,  a  little  more  than  a  century,  Walla- 
chia  passed  through  the  hands  of  no  less  than  forty  gover- 
nors. It  was  occupied  by  the  Russians  from  1770  to 
1774,  by  Austria  from  1789  to  1792,  and  again  by  the 
Russians  from  1806  to  1812.  The  evils  naturally  arising 
from  such  a  state  of  things  weighed  so  heavily  on  the 
Moldo-Wallachians  that  they  implored  the  court  of  Russia 
in  1792  to  interfere  in  their  behalf.  This  led  to  the  Rus- 
sian protectorate  and  the  rule  of  the  boyards. 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  associating  the  word  "  boyard  "  with 
aristocratic  ancestry  and  large  landed  estates.  This,  as 
concerned  the  Roumanian  boyards,  is  entirely  a  mistake. 
Boyards  in  Moldo-Wallachia  were  made  for  life.  They 
were  of  two  classes,  the  great  and  the  little  boyards.  The 
privileges  of  boyards  were  immense.  They  paid  no  taxes, 
were  under  no  obligation  to  perform  military  service,  and 
no  punishment  could  be  inflicted  on  them  that  was  de- 
grading. In  1858  there  were  in  Wallachia  three  thousand 
boyards  ;  in  Moldavia  six  thousand.  Not  more  than  three 
hundred  of  these  were  of  ancient  families ;  the  rest  had 
been  promoted  from  the  middle  class.  Indeed,  men  of 
ancient  lineage  who  respected  their  traditions  declined  to 
share  a  rank  to  which  the  reigning  ruler  of  Moldavia  had  in 
that  year  (1858)  promoted  all  his  footmen. 

For  twenty  years  —  that  is,  from  1834  to  1854  —  both 
Wallachia  and  Moldavia  were  engaged  in  perpetual  disputes 
with  their  rulers.  Alternately  they  appealed  to  the  czar  or 
to  the  sultan.  Sometimes  they  rose  and  drove  their  princes 
into  exile.  Among  the  worst  of  their  governors  was  Michael 
Stourza  of  Moldavia,  and  Prince  Stirbey  of  Wallachia.  The 
latter  was  still  reigning  when  the  Crimean  War  broke  out, 
and  Austria  sent  into  the  principalities  an  army  of  occupa- 
tion. She  had  declined  to  take  any  active  part  in  the  great 
war ;  but  agreed  to  keep  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  from  giv- 
ing assistance  to  either  side.  Prince  Stirbey,  who  up  to  that 
time  had  been  almost  a  Russian  vassal,  attached  himself  at 
once  to  Austria,  as  the  power  in  the  ascendant  in  the 
principalities. 


SERBIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  373 

All  accounts  speak  indignantly  of  the  cruelties,  the  in- 
solence, and  the  misdoings  of  the  Austrian  soldiers.  They 
succeeded  in  rousing  in  the  provinces  bitter  hatred  to  their 
country,  —  a  hatred  greater  than  the  popular  hatred  to  Rus- 
sia, far  greater  than  the  animosity  ever  manifested  by  the 
Wallachians  to  the  Turks,  in  spite  of  the  misdoings  of  Turk- 
ish officials. 

When  the  Crimean  War  ended,  the  Moldo-Wallachians 
had  hopes  that  the  Paris  Conference  would  afford  them 
some  relief,  and  began  to  talk  of  union  under  a  foreign 
prince  as  their  only  hope  of  order,  independence,  and 
prosperity.  But  the  diplomatists  at  Paris  did  not  seem 
inclined  to  consult  their  wishes.  In  Wallachia  Alexander 
Ghica  was  restored  to  a  throne  he  had  forfeited  by  mis- 
government  ;  and  in  Moldavia  two  hospodars  succeeded  his 
brother,  Gregory  Ghica;  until,  in  1858,  John  Alexander 
Couza  was  called  to  the  hospodarial  throne.  His  father 
had  been  a  wealthy  Moldavian,  who  sent  his  son  to  Paris, 
where  his  irregularities  of  conduct  were  so  outrageous  that 
he  was  ordered  home,  and  put  into  the  Moldavian  militia, 
where  he  again  got  into  trouble  for  every  kind  of  miscon- 
duct. He  next  went  into  politics,  and  took  part  in  an 
abortive  Moldavian  revolution.  For  this  he  was  arrested, 
arid  sent  to  Galatz  to  be  delivered  over  to  the  Turkish 
authorities.  He  escaped,  and  was  smuggled  on  board  a 
grain  vessel  by  the  British  consul.  He  came  back  not  long 
after,  when  Gregory  Ghica  succeeded  Michael  Stourza. 
His  private  life,  though  disreputable  in  the  extreme,  did 
not  prevent  the  Hospodar  Vogorides,  his  boon  companion, 
from  appointing  him  to  a  judgeship,  and  making  him  his 
aide-de-camp.  But  Couza,  who  had  resolved  to  bid  for 
popularity,  turned  against  his  patron,  and  commenced  a  new 
public  career  as  a  disinterested  patriot,  —  above  all,  the  friend 
of  the  peasantry.  In  1858  the  liberal  leaders  at  Jassy  (the 
Moldavian  capital),  being  at  a  loss  for  a  candidate  to  pro- 
pose for  hospodar,  were  coerced  into  selecting  Couza.  When 
apprised  that  their  choice  had  fallen  upon  him,  he  was  play- 
ing billiards  in  a  cafe. 


3/4      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

"  On  learning  what  had  come  to  pass  he  laughed  aloud,  ob- 
serving :  *  Very  well.  I  accept.  Perhaps  after  all  I  may  make 
as  good  a  prince  as  any  of  you.'  Next  day  he  was  elected  hos- 
podar  of  Moldavia  by  a  large  parliamentary  majority  ;  and  three 
weeks  later  the  Wallachian  chamber  selected  him  to  the  like  of- 
fice in  Bucharest,  thus  seizing  the  opportunity  of  securing  the 
long  yearned-for  blessing  of  the  union  of  the  principalities." * 

Prince  Couza  reigned  eight  years.  He  carried  out  his 
liberal  intentions  toward  the  peasanty,  —  gave  them  com- 
plete emancipation  from  serfdom,  security  in  their  landed 
possessions,  and  universal  suffrage. 

"The  actualities  of  Couza's  reign, "  says  Mr.  Kingston,  "were, 
after  all,  of  the  highest  importance  to  his  native  country.  .  .  . 
The  opportunity  was  presented  to  this  dissolute  but  astute 
Moldavian  of  amalgamating  the  two  provinces,  already  one  in 
speech,  religion,  customs,  and  history  ;  and  he  fulfilled  this  part 
of  his  self-assigned  mission  admirably,  achieving  a  veritable  tri- 
umph of  diplomacy  in  inducing  the  Porte  to  confirm  his  nomi- 
nation as  hospodar  of  the  united  provinces.  By  this  brilliant 
and  unexpected  feat  he  imparted  the  impulse  to  his  country's 
destinies  which  carried  Roumania  irresistibly  forward  until  she 
achieved  absolute  independence  and  the  rank  of  a  kingdom. 
His  reforms,  however,  in  favor  of  the  peasantry  roused  against 
him  the  enmity  of  the  wealthier  classes,  who  felt  that  their  only 
chance  of  establishing  a  stable  government  was  to  place  their 
country  under  the  sovereignty  of  a  foreign  prince,  if  one  could  be 
found  suited  to  the  position." 

On  the  night  of  Feb.  13,  1866,  Prince  Couza  was  roused 
from  his  sleep  by  officers  of  the  army,  who  laid  an  act  of 
abdication  before  him,  and  ordered  him  to  sign  it.  After 
some  resistance  he  did  so,  and  was  forthwith  transported  to 
the  frontier.  He  left  twelve  ducats  in  bullion  in  the  treasury ; 
the  troops  were  unpaid,  although  taxes  had  been  collected  for 
that  especial  purpose ;  and  the  very  horses  of  the  cavalry 
were  so  starved  for  want  of  fodder  that  two  regiments,  per- 
sonally attached  to  him,  were  unable  to  pursue  the  party 
who  were  carrying  him  over  the  frontier  into  Hungary. 

1  Monarchs  I  Have  Met,  W.  Beatty-Kingston. 


KING  CHARLES  OF  ROUMANIA. 


SERVIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  375 

A  provisional  government  was  at  once  appointed,  consist- 
ing of  three  of  the  principal  conspirators.  It  was  quietly 
accepted  by  all  parties ;  and  agents  were  despatched  to  the 
different  courts  of  Europe  to  pick  out  a  future  sovereign. 
The  leading  men  in  Roumania  had  pledged  themselves  in 
writing  to  choose  no  Roumanian  by  birth,  well  knowing  that 
none  of  their  fellow-countrymen  would  be  acceptable  alike 
to  Russia,  Austria,  and  Turkey,  and  dreading  local  influence 
and  local  jealousies. 

Prince  Jerome  Napoleon  offered  himself;  but  the  Czar 
Alexander  would  not  consent  to  his  selection.  Then  the 
Count  of  Flanders,  brother  and  heir  presumptive  of  the 
king  of  the  Belgians,  declined  the  proposed  honor. 

"  One  day,  during  an  audience  granted  by  Napoleon  III.  to 
Jose  Bratiano,  the  emperor,  after  passing  in  review  the  names  of 
various  august  personages,  eligible  from  the  Roumanian  point 
of  view,  and  raising  insuperable  objections  to  each,  observed : 
4  There  is  young  Prince  Charles  of  Hohenzollern,  by  the  way,  — 
why  do  you  not  try  for  him  ?  I  have  heard  him  very  well  spoken 
of ;  besides,  as  you  may  know,  he  is  a  sort  of  connection  of 
mine.  If  you  should  choose  him,  your  choice  would  be  agree- 
able to  me  ! '  On  leaving  the  Tuileries  after  further  conversa- 
tion on  the  subject,  Bratiano  communicated  the  imperial  hint  to 
the  triumvirate  at  Bucharest,  by  whom  he  was  promptly  em- 
powered to  open  negotiations  with  Anthony  of  Hohenzollern,  — 
the  young  prince's  father,  —  and  with  the  court  of  Prussia."  1 

Prince  Charles  was  a  second  son,  his  elder  brother  being 
that  Prince  Leopold,  whose  selection  for  the  vacant  throne 
of  Spain  brought  on  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  The  tie  of 
relationship  alluded  to  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon  was  the 
marriage  of  a  Prince  of  Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen  with  one 
of  the  nieces  of  the  Empress  Josephine. 

Prince  Charles,  at  the  time  when  the  princedom  of 
Roumania  was  offered  him,  was  a  captain  of  dragoons  in 
the  Prussian  army,  "  highly  esteemed  in  his  regiment  as  an 
officer  of  conspicuous  merit,  devoted  to  duty,  and  a  shin- 

1  Mr.  Kingston. 


376      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X/X^ff  CENTURY. 

ing  example  of  good  conduct  in  professional  and  private 
life  alike.  Roumania's  good  luck  was  decidedly  in  the 
ascendant  when  such  a  prince  consented  to  take  charge  of 
her  affairs.  To  him  she  owes  the  regeneration  of  her  man- 
hood and  the  amelioration  of  her  morals,  her  national  inde- 
pendence, the  increase  of  her  material  prosperity,  and  the 
establishment,  on  a  solid  basis  of  victory,  of  her  military 
reputation.  When  he  took  her  in  hand,  she  was,  as  a  State, 
of  '  no  account '  in  the  great  European  problems  awaiting 
solution.  Her  army  was  worthless ;  her  civil  and  judicial 
administration  were  rotten:  bribery  and  corruption  were 
rampant  in  every  department  of  the  State's  service.  A  more 
hospitable,  generous,  and  kindly  people  than  the  Rouma- 
nians could  not  have  been  found  within  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Europe,  nor  one  less  industrious,  thrifty,  truth- 
loving,  and  trustworthy."1 

Shortly  before  the  Seven  Weeks'  War  broke  out  between 
Prussia  and  Austria,  Prince  Charles  set  out  in  disguise  for 
his  new  dominions.  At  the  frontier  he  was  met  by  M. 
Bratiano,  the  leader  of  the  liberal  party,  who  has  ever  since 
been  his  prime  minister.  He  made  his  public  entrance 
into  Bucharest  May  10,  1866  ;  and  since  then  few  monarchs 
have  accomplished  more  for  their  people,  or  enjoyed  a 
larger  measure  of  well- merited  confidence  and  popularity. 
The  only  distrust  of  him  that  has  been  ever  manifested  was 
in  1870,  when  the  sympathies  of  Roumania  were  all  for 
France  in  the  Franco- Prussian  war,  and  it  was  feared  he 
might  wish  to  take  some  part  in  it,  being  a  Hohenzollern. 

Prince  Charles  had  been  hospodar  of  Roumania  three 
years  and  a  half,  when  he  sought  and  obtained  the  hand  of 
one  of  the  most  highly  gifted  and  accomplished  ladies  in 
Europe,  whose  virtues  and  talents  have  lent  lustre  to  his 
throne.  She  was  one  of  three  daughters  of  Prince  Herman 
of  Wied,  a  tiny  mediatized  principality  on  the  edge  of  the 
Black  Forest.  Prince  Herman  had  written  a  book  on 
metaphysics,  and  spent  his  time  chiefly  at  the  German 

1  Mr.  Kingston. 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ROUMANIA. 


SERVIA  AND  ROUMANIA.  377 

universities.  His  oldest  son  was  with  his  regiment  at 
Berlin,  and  his  wife  (a  princess  of  Nassau)  and  his  three 
daughters  lived  in  the  ancestral  castle.  Elizabeth,  the  eldest, 
devoted  herself  to  study;  reading  poetry  and  philosophy, 
and  rambling  about  the  forest  attended  by  two  immense 
St.  Bernard  dogs.  She  grew  greatly  interested  in  folk-lore 
and  in  the  habits  of  the  peasantry.  When  she  was  eighteen 
her  mother  sent  her  to  Berlin  to  spend  a  winter  with  good 
Queen  Augusta.  There  she  first  met  Prince  Charles  of 
Hohenzollern.  When  she  was  twenty-one  she  passed  a  year 
in  Russia,  but  the  climate  did  not  suit  her  delicate  health, 
and  her  chief  pleasure  was  in  a  friendship  she  formed  with 
Clara  Schumann,  sister  of  the  composer. 

She  went  afterward  to  Italy,  and  on  her  way  paid  a  brief 
visit  to  a  cousin,  where  she  met  Count  von  Moltke,  who 
said  in  her  presence  of  Prince  Charles  of  Hohenzollern, 
"  He  is  a  young  man  who  will  take  his  place  in  life  and  be 
much  spoken  of." 

Princess  Elizabeth  had  made  up  her  mind  never  to  marry, 
but  to  devote  her  life  to  literature  and  philanthropy,  when 
Prince  Charles  of  Roumania  again  appeared,  believing  that 
in  the  young  girl  who  had  from  the  first  attracted  him,  he 
should  find  a  true  helpmate  in  his  difficult  position. 

The  courtship  was  brief,  but  it  was  a  very  happy  one. 
When  her  friends  congratulated  her  on  ascending  a  throne 
she  said,  "  No  throne  would  have  suited  me  but  that 
of  Roumania,  because  in  Roumania  there  will  be  plenty 
to  do." 

She  was  married  November  18,  1869,  and  ten  days  later 
she  and  her  husband  reached  Bucharest,  their  capital.  A 
traveller  before  that  day  spoke  of  Bucharest  as  "  a  rural 
city,  belted  with  pleasant  meadows,  and  nestling  in  a  net- 
work of  vines  and  gardens."  With  every  demonstration  of 
delight  its  motley  population  of  Roumans,  foreigners, 
Gypsies,  and  Jews,  received  their  young  prince  and  his 
bride.  Elizabeth  was  lost  in  delight  over  the  beautiful 
scene. 


3/8     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

At  once  she  set  herself  to  fulfil  her  duties,  learning  to 
take  pleasure  even  in  ceremonial.  She  encouraged  education 
in  every  way,  taking  an  especial  interest  in  school-books 
and  children's  books,  of  which,  up  to  her  time  there  were 
none  in  the  Roumanian  language.  She  collected  young 
Roumanian  girls,  daughters  of  noblemen,  around  her,  and 
the  first  thing  she  taught  them  was  industry.  She  and  they 
wore  always  the  Roumanian  costume,  and  while  she  set 
them  their  tasks  of  needle-work,  like  a  chatelaine  of  old,  she 
read  aloud  to  them  and  tried  to  inspire  them  with  a  taste 
for  poetry,  music,  and  general  literature. 

In  those  early  happy  days  of  her  married  life  little  Marie, 
her  only  child,  was  born.  But  little  Marie  died  of  diphtheria 
when  she  was  four  years  old.  "  Only  in  work,  in  the 
great  abundance  of  work,  lies  consolation,"  the  sorrowing 
mother  said  in  her  affliction. 

In  1876  the  struggle  between  Russia  and  Turkey  began 
by  the  occupation  of  Roumania  by  a  Russian  army.  In 
1877  Prince  Charles  was  fighting  as  the  ally  of  Russia.  If 
occasionally  Roumanians  had  been  found  who  thought  that 
their  prince  retained  rather  too  much  of  the  steady-going 
painstaking  Prussian  officer,  they  now  learned  how  much 
those  qualities  contributed  to  their  national  importance. 
When  they  called  him  from  his  military  service  in  Germany 
the  Roumanian  army  was  a  mob  of  undisciplined  men.  In 
the  war  of  1877  the  Roumanians  proved  themselves  the  best 
contingent  in  the  Russian  army.  It  was  to  the  forty-six 
thousand  men  of  the  Roumanian  reinforcement  that  the 
Russians  owed  their  ability  to  retreat  in  good  order  after 
their  first  repulse  at  Plevna.  SkobelefT  complained,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  their  plundering  propensities,  but  they  fought 
admirably  and  appear  to  have  been  well  officered. 

Meantime  in  Bucharest  the  Princess  Elizabeth  came  to 
be  called  by  Russian  and  Roumanian  soldiers  "  the  mother 
of  the  wounded."  "Wearing  the  simple  garb  of  the  Red 
Cross  sisterhood  she  was  to  be  found  early  and  late  in 
the  hospitals.  Whenever,"  says  Mr.  Kingston,  "  in  my 


PRINCE  FERDINAND  OF  ROUMANIA. 


SERVIA  AND  ROU MANIA.  379 

flying  visits  to  Bucharest  I  found  time  to  look  up  some 
friend  or  acquaintance  lying  fever- stricken  or  wounded  in 
the  ward  of  a  hospital  I  was  sure  to  encounter  by  some 
poor  fellow's  bedside  the  merciful  princess." 

When  the  war  was  over  Roumania  was  declared  wholly  in- 
dependent of  Turkey;  and  on  October  28,  1878,  the  prince 
and  his  victorious  army  marched  in  triumph  into  Bucharest, 
received  with  showers  of  flowers,  and  singing  a  Battle 
Hymn  composed  for  the  occasion  by  Princess  Elizabeth. 

But  a  great  disappointment  was  in  store  for  the  nation 
and  its  sovereign.  Their  reward  for  all  that  they  had  done 
and  suffered  was  that  the  Berlin  Conference  took  from  them 
Bessarabia,  giving  them  instead  the  swampy  and  malarious 
Dobrudscha.  "  Bessarabia  had  given  to  Roumanians  the 
command  of  the  mouths  of  the  Danube ;  by  losing  it  they 
impaired  their  chance  for  becoming  a  strong  and  prosperous 
nation." 

Most  writers  of  the  period  bitterly  comment  on  the  in- 
gratitude and  bad  faith  of  the  Emperor  Alexander  II.,  in 
consenting  thus  to  despoil  his  own  ally,  but  do  not  remem- 
ber (perhaps  did  not  understand)  how  terribly  his  own 
prestige  was  impaired  among  his  people  by  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Congress,  so  that  he  dared  not  refuse  any  addi- 
tions to  Russian  territory  that  the  Powers  were  willing  to 
offer  him.  Nor  was  he  at  Berlin  during  the  Congress, 
being  detained  by  the  illness  of  the  empress  at  Gatschina. 

The  international  position  of  Roumania  was  confirmed 
and  secured  to  her,  and  it  was  intimated  to  Prince  Charles 
that  Europe  would  gladly  see  him  made  a  king. 

He  was  elected  to  that  dignity  by  a  unanimous  vote  in 
both  chambers  March  26,  1881,  and  crowned  king  of  the 
kingdom  of  Roumania  May  2  2  of  the  same  year.  "  The 
coronation  day,"  says  Mr.  Kingston,  "  brought  him  a 
splendid  reward  for  his  long  and  steadfast  devotion  to  the 
best  interests  of  his  adopted  country." 

The  crown  was  made  from  the  steel  of  a  Turkish  gun, 
taken  by  the  Roumanian  troops  when  they  wrested  a 


380    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTtf  CENTURY. 

seemingly    impregnable    redoubt    from    the    veterans    of 
Osman  Pasha. 

Not  long  since  a  great  sorrow  fell  once  more  on  Queen 
Elizabeth,  better  known  to  many  of  us  perhaps  as  Carmen 
Sylva;  and  her  health,  long  impaired  by  excitement  and 
overwork,  seems  now  hopelessly  shattered. 

Among  the  young  girls  who  sat  at  her  feet  and  listened 
to  her  voice,  and  loved  her  as  their  inspiration  and  their 
guide,  was  a  certain  Princess  Vacaresco.  As  the  royal  pair 
of  Roumania  have  had  no  children  since  their  little  daugh- 
ter died,  King  Charles  selected  as  his  heir  presumptive  a 
son  of  his  brother,  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Hohenzollern.  The 
young  man  resided  at  the  Roumanian  court  that  he  might 
become  well  acquainted  with  the  manners,  the  customs,  and 
the  language  of  his  future  people.  At  this  court  and  in  the 
society  of  its  queen  he  met  the  Princess  Vacaresco.  They 
became  deeply  attached  to  each  other.  The  queen  favored 
their  love  and  endeavored  to  promote  their  marriage.  But 
the  constitution  of  the  kingdom  of  Roumania  was  against 
the  lovers'  hopes  and  wishes. 

Not  only  had  it  been  stipulated  that  no  Roumanian  should 
be  considered  an  eligible  ruler,  but  so  great  was  the  popular 
dread  of  awakening  the  jealousies  of  rival  houses  that  a 
stipulation  was  added  that  no  prince  could  bear  rule  in 
Roumania  who  married  a  Roumanian. 

The  throne  had  not  been  established  long  enough  for  an 
heir  presumptive  to  disregard  this  provision.  The  lovers 
parted.  The  Princess  Vacaresco  withdrew  to  Paris,  and 
after  a  period  of  sincere  grieving  for  her  loss  Prince 
Ferdinand  asked  the  hand  of  Princess  Marie  of  England, 
granddaughter  of  Queen  Victoria,  daughter  of  H.  R.  H. 
Prince  Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  and  niece  to  the  present 
emperor  of  Russia.  His  suit  was  accepted,  and  the  mar- 
riage took  place  January  10,  1893,  at  his  father's  family 
castle  in  Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen  on  the  Danube.  King 
Charles  was  present,  but  Queen  Elizabeth  was  too  ill 
to  attend. 


M/.YCESS  AfAKIE. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE   BALKAN   PRINCIPALITIES   AND   PROVINCES. 

T  T  7E  will  end  these  sketches  of  Russia  and  Turkey  and 
*  *  the  kingdoms  and  the  States  now  lying  between 
them,  —  lands  fought  over  and  ravaged,  outraged,  contended 
for  and  still  in  dispute,  —  with  some  account  of  the  obscure 
Turkish  provinces  placed  by  the  Congress  of  Berlin  under 
the  protection  of  Austria,  and  of  two  principalities,  one  of 
which  still  acknowledges  the  quasi- suzerainty  of  the  sultan, 
while  the  other,  proud  of  having  never  been  subdued,  is 
entirely  enfranchised. 

This  tiny  principality  is  Montenegro,  a  land  which  Mr. 
Gladstone  says  "  might  have  risen  to  world-wide  and  immor- 
tal fame  had  there  been  a  Scott  to  learn  and  tell  the  mar- 
vels of  its  history,  or  a  Byron  to  spend  and  be  spent  on  its 
behalf."  l 

When  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Turks 
overran  the  ruins  of  Stephen  Dushan's  Servian  Empire,  the 
Montenegrin  ruler,  Ivan  Tchernoievitch  (ever  since  in  his 
own  land  a  popular  hero)  sought  help  from  the  Venetians. 
It  was  denied  him,  and  with  all  his  people  he  retired  to  the 
rocks  and  precipices  of  the  Black  Mountains,  forsaking  for 
the  cause  of  faith  and  freedom  the  fertile  plains  that  had 
been  populated  by  their  race  for  seven  hundred  years. 

Prince  Ivan  built  a  monastery  at  Cettinje',  round  which 
subsequently  grew  up  the  capital  of  Montenegro;  "and," 

1  Montenegro;  a  sketch  by  W.  E.  Gladstone.  Nineteenth 
Century. 


382      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  what  is  most  of  all  remarkable  in  the 
whole  transaction,  he  carried  with  him  to  the  hills  a  printing- 
press  twenty-eight  years  after  the  appearance  of  the  first 
printed  book  in  Germany." 

George,  the  son  of  Ivan,  had  married  a  Venetian  wife, 
and  was  persuaded  by  her  to  go  back  among  her  people ; 
but  finding  soon  after  that  his  countrymen  were  in  danger, 
owing  to  the  unworthy  conduct  of  his  brother  Stephen,  who 
had  become  a  renegade,  he  returned  to  his  mountains, 
restored  peace,  and  in  1516  retired  finally  to  Venice,  trans- 
ferring his  authority  to  the  metropolitan  bishop. 

After  this  for  three  hundred  and  thirty-six  years  the 
government  of  Montenegro  was  carried  on  "  by  a  long 
series  of  about  twenty  prelate  princes,  who  taught  in  the 
sanctuary,  presided  over  the  council,  or  fought  in  the  front 
of  battle.  There  were  among  them  those  who  were  admi- 
rable statesmen.  These  were  especially  of  the  Nicgush 
family,  which  came  in  1687  to  the  permanent  possession  of 
power,  —  a  power  so  little  begirt  with  the  conveniences  of 
life,  and  so  weighted  with  responsibility  and  care,  that  it 
was  never  coveted,  and  seems  never  to  have  been  abused." 

After  the  accession  of  Prince  Danilo,  the  first  of  the 
Nicgush  bishop-princes,  incessant  wars  were  carried  on 
between  the  Turks  and  Montenegrins  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years ;  in  other  words,  almost  to  the  present 
day.  The  Montenegrins  were  alternately  aggressors  and 
self-defenders.  Their  raids  on  Turkey  very  much  re- 
sembled those  of  the  Highland  caterans  upon  the  Low- 
lands, —  "  raids,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  that  we  have 
learned  to  judge  so  leniently." 

Whenever  Austria  or  Russia  went  to  war  with  Turkey  the 
Montenegrins  took  that  opportunity  to  attack  the  Turks, 
but  they  rarely  reaped  any  reward  from  the  Christian  Pow- 
ers for  their  assistance.  The  Russian  government  of  late 
years,  however,  has  paid  a  small  subsidy  to  the  prince  of 
Montenegro. 

By  the  Congress  of  Vienna  the  only  seaport  possessed  by 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.     383 

the  Montenegrins  (that  of  Cattaro)  was  made  over  to  the 
Austrians.  Until  recently  the  principality  was  no  larger 
than  one  of  the  smallest  dukedoms  of  Germany,  but  the 
Congress  of  Berlin  added  to  its  territory,  and  gave  it  in 
addition  to  Cattaro  two  seaports,  Antivari  and  Dulcigno. 
It  now  contains  seventeen  hundred  and  ten  square  miles  of 
territory,  and  has  a  population  of  about  a  quarter  of  a 
million,  —  one-fifth  as  much,  let  us  say,  as  the  city  of 
Chicago.  The  surface  of  the  country  is  a  series  of  ele- 
vated ridges  rising  here  and  there  into  high  mountains 
covered  with  forests.  The  population  is  entirely  agricul- 
tural, and  every  man  when  he  engages  in  field  labor  adheres 
to  ancient  custom  and  keeps  his  weapons  by  his  side.  The 
population  was  increased  in  1865  an{^  m  I^75  by  Christians 
flying  from  Turkish  oppression  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina ; 
but  when  peace  was  restored  by  the  Berlin  Congress  these 
immigrants,  for  the  most  part,  returned  to  their  own  fertile 
plains. 

In  1782  Peter  the  Saint  was  prince  or  vladika  of  Mon- 
tenegro. General  Marmont  (Due  de  Raguse)  offered  him 
great  inducements  to  join  the  French  and  Turks  against  the 
Austrians,  but  Peter  firmly  refused  to  place  his  people  on 
the  side  of  their  hereditary  enemy.  Marmont,  notwith- 
standing his  disappointment,  wrote  thus  :  "  This  vladika  is 
a  splendid  man,  now  about  fifty,  of  remarkable  intelligence 
and  great  dignity  of  manner.  His  legal  authority  over 
his  countrymen  may  not  be  great,  but  his  influence  is 
unbounded." 

"  Down  to,  and  perhaps  after  the  time  of  this  prince," 
says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  the  government  of  Montenegro  was 
carried  on  like  government  in  Greece  in  the  Homeric  age. 
The  sovereign  was  priest,  judge,  and  general,  and  was  like- 
wise the  head  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  people,  in 
which  were  taken  the  decisions  which  were  to  bind  the 
nation  as  laws." 

Prince  Peter  died  in  1830  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
nephew  Peter,  surnamed  the  Poet,  who  was  seventeen  when 


384    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

called  to  the  throne,  and  who  three  years  later  received  at 
St.  Petersburg  episcopal  consecration.  He  was  nearly  six 
feet  eight  inches  in  height  and  finely  proportioned. 

He  proved  himself  a  successful  warrior  and  a  somewhat 
stern  legislator,  being  resolved,  like  James  I.  of  Scotland,  to 
put  down  among  his  subjects  both  brigandage  and  the 
vendetta. 

Hero,  statesman,  and  poet,  he  died  in  1851.  His  recog- 
nized heir  was  his  nephew  Danilo.  The  reason  Montene- 
grin princes  were  succeeded,  not  by  sons,  but  by  nephews, 
was  that  their  sacerdotal  character  enjoined  celibacy.  In  the 
orthodox  Greek  Church,  priests  must  marry ;  bishops  may 
not.  Prince  Danilo  had  become  greatly  attached  to  a  lady 
in  Trieste,  and  thence  arose  a  difficulty.  Either  he  must 
renounce  his  love,  or  break  with  the  traditions  of  his  race 
and  refuse  to  be  a  bishop.  The  Council  of  his  people  whom 
he  consulted  advised  him  to  marry,  and  to  become,  not 
their  bishop,  but  their  hospodar.  With  their  consent  he 
transferred  his  allegiance  (what  little  of  it  was  left)  from 
Turkey  to  Russia,  and  sought  investiture  in  his  new  dignity 
from  the  Emperor  Nicholas. 

He  lived  a  happy  married  life  for  nine  years,  but  in  1860 
he  was  shot  by  an  assassin,  from  some  motive  of  private 
revenge,  while  standing  on  the  quay  at  Cattaro.  During 
the  Crimean  War  he  had  declined  to  take  any  part  in  the 
struggle,  much  to  the  indignation  of  his  subjects,  who  wished 
to  help  the  Russians;  but  in  1858,  after  the  war  ended, 
Mirko  his  brother  attacked  the  Turks  and  gained  a  signal 
victory.  This  fight  was  in  consequence  of  an  attempt  of 
the  Congress  of  Paris  to  force  Montenegro  (in  return  for 
the  restitution  of  Cattaro)  to  acknowledge  the  suzerainty  of 
the  sultan.  Prince  Danilo  refused.  Prince  Mirko  gained 
his  victory,  and  chiefly  by  the  good  offices  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  III.  the  Powers  acknowledged  the  complete 
independence  of  the  gallant  little  principality. 

Prince  Danilo  left  no  sons.  His  widow  and  his  daughter 
retired  to  Venice,  a  city  which  to  Montenegrins  of  position 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.      385 

has  for  generations  been  a  gate  leading  from  their  mountain 
stronghold  into  civilized  life.  There  the  princess  died  not 
long  since,  much  embarrassed  by  debt.  Her  habits  were 
lavish  and  her  resources  very  small.  Indeed  she  could 
receive  little  aid  from  Montenegro.  The  whole  revenue  of 
the  principality  amounts  only  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars. 

Her  husband  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew,  Prince  Nikita, 
or  Nicholas,  son  of  Prince  Mirko.  According  to  a  Mon- 
tenegrin writer,  Prince  Nikita  entered  on  his  reign  with  two 
fixed  ideas  of  duty :  he  resolved  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
civilization,  and  to  assist  in  the  liberation  of  other  Slavonic 
peoples. 

It  would  be  of  little  interest  to  relate  the  varying  fortunes 
of  the  guerilla  warfare  carried  on  with  the  Turks  from  July 
to  October,  1876,  when  the  Bosnians,  Herzegovinians  and 
Servians  made  peace,  but  their  allies  the  Montenegrins 
refused  to  do  so  till  they  could  treat  as  victors  with  the 
national  enemy. 

Prince  Nikita  is  now  (in  1893)  fifty-two  years  old.  He 
received  his  education  in  Paris,  at  the  Lyce"e  Louis  le  Grand, 
some  years  before  King  Milan  of  Servia  was  sent  to  the 
same  institution. 

"Napoleon  III.  took  a  great  interest  in  him,  invited 
him  often  to  Compiegne,  gave  him  pocket-money  and 
presents,  and  on  his  coming  to  the  throne  gratified  him 
with  fifty  thousand  dollars."  * 

In  his  youth  this  prince  was  strikingly  handsome ;  and  he 
remains  so  still,  although  he  has  grown  gray  and  portly. 
He  is  a  poet  as  well  as  a  soldier,  and  has  composed  some 
ballads  which  are  popular  wherever  the  language  in  which 
they  are  written  is  spoken.  He  is  himself  an  accomplished 
linguist,  speaking  French,  Italian,  Russian,  and  Turkish 
with  perfect  fluency,  and  German  fairly  well.  He  is 
regarded  by  European  diplomacy  as  the  firm  ally,  almost 
the  vassal  of  the  emperor  of  Russia,  and  between  them  is 
1  Temple  Bar. 
25 


386     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

the  bond  dearest  to  the  heart  of  the  Czar  Alexander,  —  the 
prince  and  people  of  Montenegro  are  of  the  orthodox 
Greek  Church,  the  branch  that  is  the  State  Church  of  Holy 
Russia. 

Prince  Nikita  married  when  seventeen  the  beautiful  and 
gracious  Milena,  daughter  of  a  Slavonian  nobleman,  by 
whom  he  has  a  large  family.  One  of  his  daughters,  the 
Princess  Zorka  (or  Aurora)  has  been  married  to  Peter 
Karageorgevitch,  the  pretender  of  the  dynasty  of  Kara 
George  to  the  Servian  throne.  This  prince,  who  is  a  spend- 
thrift and  a  vulgarian,  lives  at  Cettinje,  and  from  time  to 
time  gives  his  father-in-law  considerable  trouble. 

The  Montenegrins  all  wear  their  national  costume ;  all 
have  the  air  of  soldiers.  Their  dress  is  Oriental,  —  a  sky- 
blue  jacket,  a  scarlet  sash,  and  spurred  boots.  Their  prince 
throws  over  this  a  white  mantle  or  furred  caftan ;  and  thus 
attired,  with  a  jewelled  sword  at  his  side,  he  gives  audience, 
sitting  under  a  tree  (like  Saint  Louis  under  the  oak  at  Vin- 
cennes),  two  or  three  times  a  week  to  all  who  have  anything 
to  ask  of  him  ;  and  he  administers  justice  off-hand. 

Cettinje  is  a  town  of  about  two  thousand  inhabitants.  It 
is  built  aloft  on  a  high  mountain,  the  path  up  which  from 
the  seacoast  is  so  steep  that  every  article  of  furniture  brought 
from  abroad  must  be  carried  up  on  the  backs  of  men  or 
women. 

The  palace  is  like  a  mediaeval  castle.  In  it,  besides  the 
prince,  his  family  and  household,  a  hundred  men  of  his 
body-guard  are  lodged.  There  is  a  large  hotel,  where  mem- 
bers of  the  diplomatic  corps  reside  together,  or  at  least  dine 
together  and  spend  their  evenings. 

Prince  Nikita  is  still  constantly  engaged  in  cultivating  his 
subjects ;  but  one  idea  of  our  fin  du  siecle  has  made  no 
entrance  as  yet  into  Montenegro,  —  its  martial  men  still  look 
upon  women  as  the  Indian  brave  looks  upon  the  squaw. 
The  women  accept  the  "  dynastic  tyranny  of  larger  bones 
and  stronger  sinews  "  without  a  murmur. 

An  adventure  in  Montenegro  told  by  Laurence  Oliphant 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.     387 

seems  to  make  the  primitive  simplicity  that  reigned  there 
twenty  years  since  so  plain  to  me  that  I  venture  here  to 
repeat  it,  especially  as  I  think  Mr.  Oliphant's  book,  "  Scenes 
from  a  Life  of  Adventure,  or  Moss  from  a  Rolling  Stone," 
is  far  less  known  than  it  deserves  to  be. 

Mr.  Oliphant  had  arrived  in  Montenegro  in  1860,  imme- 
diately after  the  marriage  of  Prince  Nikita.  He  had  passed 
through  Hungary  and  crossed  the  Danube  at  Belgrade, 
"  reaching  it,"  he  says,  "on  the  day  before  Prince  Milosch's 
death,  and  witnessing  the  very  singular  funeral  of  that 
remarkably  able  and  very  wicked  old  man." 

"  Thence  I  rolled  on  through  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  wilder 
and  more  turbulent  in  those  days  than  they  are  now,  abounding 
in  brigand  bands,  enchanting  scenery,  and  fleas,  and  in  a 
chronic  state  of  guerilla  warfare  with  the  Turks,  which  invested 
travelling  through  that  country  with  the  pleasing  charm  of  per- 
petual risk  to  life  and  limb." 

By  way  of  Cattaro  he  reached  Cettinje". 

"  This  little  town  did  not  in  1860  contain  any  hotel,  properly 
so-called.  The  rare  stranger  who  visited  it  was  accommodated 
in  a  sort  of  lodging-house,  in  which  there  were  one  or  two  spare 
bedrooms;  or  if  they  were  not  actually  spare  their  occupants 
turned  out,  I  suppose  for  a  consideration,  on  the  arrival  of  a 
guest.  The  chamber  assigned  to  me  had  apparently  been  thus 
vacated.  Its  former  occupant  had  evidently  been  a  man  of 
modest  requirements,  for  the  whole  furniture  consisted  of  a  bed, 
a  huge  chest,  and  a  chair.  I  much  wondered  at  the  absence  of 
a  table,  and  at  the  presence  of  the  chest ;  but  the  latter  was 
better  than  nothing,  and  when  a  boiled  chicken  was  brought  to 
me  as  my  evening  repast,  I  spread  one  of  my  own  towels  upon 
it,  in  the  absence  of  a  table-cloth,  and  squatting  uncomfortably 
upon  the  solitary  chair  proceeded  to  make  the  best  of  existing 
conditions.  I  was  in  the  act  of  dissecting  an  extremely  tough 
wing,  when  the  door  suddenly  opened,  and  a  stalwart  Montene- 
grin, magnificent  in  his  national  costume,  walked  in.  He 
addressed  me  with  great  politeness  in  his  native  tongue,  —  at 
least  I  gathered  from  his  manner  that  he  was  polite,  for  I  could 
not  understand  a  word  of  what  he  said.  As  he  was  evidently  a 


388     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX™  CENTURY. 

man  of  some  position,  —  in  other  words,  as  he  seemed  to  be  a 
gentleman  of  Montenegro,  —  I  rose,  and  bowed  with  much  cere- 
mony, addressing  him  fluently  in  the  English  language ;  upon 
which  he  drew  an  immense  key  from  his  pocket  and  pointed  to 
the  lock  of  the  chest,  thus  giving  me  to  understand  that  he 
wished  to  open  it.  In  order  for  him  to  accomplish  this,  it  was 
necessary  for  me  to  remove  my  dinner,  an  operation  which  was 
speedily  performed.  As  he  seemed  a  frank  and  engaging  sort 
of  person,  without  any  secrets,  and  as  I  was  possessed  with 
some  natural  curiosity,  I  looked  over  him  as  he  opened  the  chest, 
to  see  what  was  in  it.  To  my  astonishment  it  was  full  to  the 
brim  with  bags  of  money.  Not  only  this,  but  my  strange  visitor 
opened  one  of  them  and  poured  out  a  handful  of  gold.  They 
were  evidently  all  full  of  gold.  When  he  had  counted  out  what 
he  wanted  (apparently  it  was  over  one  hundred  pounds)  he  tied 
up  the  bag  again,  replaced  it,  locked  up  the  chest,  helped  me, 
with  many  Slavonic  expressions  which  I  have  no  doubt  were 
apologies,  to  lay  my  cloth  again  and  spread  my  banquet,  and 
with  a  final  polite  salutation  vanished,  leaving  me  alone,  and  in 
perfect  confidence,  with  the  untold  treasure  he  had  thus  revealed 
to  me.  There  was  something  almost  uncanny  in  dining  and 
sleeping  alone  with  so  much  money.  At  night  the  chest  seemed 
to  assume  gigantic  proportions,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  had  been  put 
into  a  haunted  room.  The  absolute  confidence  placed  in  me,  an 
entire  stranger,  —  for  I  had  not  been  in  the  place  two  hours  and 
had  not  yet  presented  my  letter  of  introduction  to  the  prince,  — 
appalled  me,  and  I  went  to  sleep  vainly  trying  to  unravel  a  mys- 
tery so  very  unlike  any  I  had  expected  to  find  in  the  barren 
wilds  of  Montenegro.  It  was  not  solved  until  next  day,  when, 
dining  with  the  prince,  I  met  my  visitor  of  the  previous  evening. 
I  then  acquired  the  information,  through  a  Russian  gentleman 
who  spoke  French,  that  the  chest  upon  which  I  had  dined  con- 
tained the  entire  finances  of  the  principality,  and  that  the  Mon- 
tenegrin who  had  unlocked  it,  and  had  vacated  his  chamber  on 
my  behalf,  was  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer !  " 

Herzegovina  and  Bosnia  are  countries  that  the  ordinarily 
well-educated  man  or  woman  thinks  it  no  shame  to  know 
nothing  about.  Up  to  the  regulation  of  east  European 
affairs  by  the  Congress  of  Berlin  in  1878,  these  provinces  of 
Turkey  were  the  western  frontier  of  Mohammedan  dominion, 
dividing  it  from  the  borders  of  so-called  Christian  civiliza- 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.      389 

tion ;  but  they  were  at  the  same  time  the  most  backward  of 
all  the  provinces  of  the  Porte  in  enlightenment.  They  lay 
west  and  southwest  of  Servia,  interposing  a  savage  popula- 
tion between  the  strip  of  Dalmatian  territory  that  skirts  the 
Adriatic,  and  the  comparatively  more  civilized  communities 
that  dwell  along  the  Danube.  The  land  is  rich  in  minerals 
of  every  kind.  The  soil  of  Bosnia  is  said  to  cover  enor- 
mous coal-fields.  The  scenery  is  beautiful,  game  is  abun- 
dant, and  the  valleys  are  fertile ;  but  great  darkness  for 
centuries  settled  down  upon  their  people,  and  in  darkness 
no  man  is  disposed  to  be  active  either  in  body  or  thought. 
Up  to  1875  there  were  no  roads  throughout  the  country, 
except  fragments  of  those  highways  made  by  the  Romans 
when  the  country  formed  part  of  the  province  of  Mcesia, 
and  lay  within  easy  distance  of  Byzantium,  an  imperial 
city. 

When  conquered  by  the  Turks  in  1485,  most  of  the 
nobles  of  Bosnia  preserved  and  indeed  increased  their 
hereditary  privileges  by  turning  Moslems;  but  the  rural 
population,  especially  in  Herzegovina,  remained  true  to 
their  Christian  creed ;  while  national  feeling  was  kept  up 
by  the  village  system,  common  to  all  people  of  Slavonic 
race. 

In  Bosnia  the  renegade  nobility  became  the  oppressors 
of  their  people,  but  Herzegovina  retained  for  a  long  while 
some  of  its  popular  rights.  But  in  1850  the  Begs  of  Bosnia 
(the  renegade  nobles)  became  so  insubordinate  that  the 
sultan  sent  Omar  Pasha  with  an  army  into  their  land  to 
put  an  end  to  their  government. 

In  1858  the  celebrated  Hatt-i-Humayoun,  extorted  from 
the  sultan  by  the  Powers  after  the  Crimean  War,  raised  the 
hopes  of  Christians  throughout  the  Turkish  Empire.  It 
guaranteed  them  civil  rights  and  religious  freedom ;  but,  as 
we  know  already,  Turkish  statesmen  may  put  forth  promises 
to  "Christian  dogs  and  unbelievers"  upon  paper,  only  to 
find  that  pashas  and  good  Mussulmans  are  unwilling  to 
perform  them. 


39O     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XlXm  CENTURY. 

In  Herzegovina,  in  1875,  Christians  largely  outnumbered 
the  Mohammedans ;  in  Bosnia  they  were  in  a  proportion  of 
two  to  one.  Both  provinces  contained  many  Roman  Cath- 
olics, whose  sympathies  were  Austrian,  but  the  majority  of 
the  Christians  were  what  some  call  Pravo-Slavs,  —  that  is, 
Christians  of  the  Russian  Greek  Church ;  and  one  of  their 
most  bitter  complaints  against  the  Turkish  government  was 
that  it  set  over  them  Greek  bishops  from  Constantinople, 
who  paid  for  their  appointments. 

In  Herzegovina  the  harvest  of  1874  was  a  bad  one,  and 
the  peasantry  foresaw  a  hard  winter  before  them.  Abdul 
Aziz  was  eager  for  an  increase  of  revenue.  To  defray  the 
expenses  of  his  European  tour,  and  his  extravagant  build- 
ing projects,  he  had  raised  a  foreign  loan.  His  treasury 
was  empty,  and  he  could  not  escape  the  obligation  to  pay 
dividends  to  the  foreign  bondholders.  The  farmers  of  the 
taxes  were  pressed  by  the  government  to  raise  more  money. 
In  their  turn  they  pressed  hard  upon  the  tax-gatherers,  who 
pressed  more  heavily  than  ever  on  the  unfortunate  people. 

The  tax-collectors  had  always  required  the  agriculturists 
to  keep  their  crops  standing  until  it  suited  their  convenience 
to  come  and  levy  the  tithe  due  to  the  sultan ;  and  they 
invariably  estimated  the  crop,  however  damaged,  to  be 
worth  the  highest  market  prices  in  Constantinople.  But  in 
one  district  the  tax-gatherer  did  not  make  his  appearance 
until  January,  1875,  by  which  time  hunger  had  compelled 
the  peasants  to  sell  or  to  eat  some  part  of  their  crops. 
The  tax-gatherer  estimated  the  tax  at  an  enormous  sum ; 
the  people  resisted  his  demands ;  they  were  robbed,  beaten 
and  imprisoned,  and  their  head  men  were  threatened  with 
arrest  if  they  complained.  Some  fled  to  the  mountains  of 
Montenegro,  sure  of  finding  shelter  among  people  of  the 
same  faith  and  the  same  race.  The  insurrection  spread 
to  other  portions  of  the  province.  About  the  same  time 
the  emperor  of  Austria,  on  whom  Roman  Catholic  Chris- 
tians, when  oppressed  by  the  Porte,  looked  as  their  pro- 
tector, chanced  to  visit  his  province  of  Dalmatia.  The 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.      391 

Herzegovina  peasantry  at  once  began  to  hope  that  he  had 
come  to  aid  them.  Soon  every  part  of  Herzegovina  was 
aflame  with  insurrection.1 

The  governor  of  Bosnia  went  over  into  Herzegovina, 
and  made  some  attempts  to  settle  the  dispute  by  pacific 
intervention ;  but  in  vain.  The  insurrection  spread  into 
his  pashalik.  Thousands  of  unhappy  fugitives  crossed  into 
Austrian  territory.  Six  thousand  were  sheltered  in  Ragusa, 
and  the  resources  of  that  little  Dalmatian  city  were  strained 
to  the  utmost  to  provide  for  them.  Their  cry  of  distress 
reached  western  Europe,  and  in  England  and  elsewhere 
societies  were  formed  to  send  them  clothes  and  money. 
Meantime  both  Servians  and  Montenegrins  came  to  their 
aid,  and  Bulgaria  showed  symptoms  of  insurrection,  which 
were  repressed  by  massacre.  But  the  Turkish  armies  had 
good  leaders  and  trained  soldiers ;  the  insurgents  seem  to 
have  had  no  leaders,  and  were  without  arms  or  military 
discipline.  Their  allies,  the  Servians,  made  peace  with  the 
Turks  in  1876.  Herzegovina  and  Bosnia  lay  at  the  mercy 
of  the  sultan.  But  at  that  moment  the  attention  of  the 
authorities  at  Constantinople  was  distracted  by  a  change 
in  the  order  of  succession,  and  an  impending  war  with 
Russia,  besides  plans  and  counter- plans  for  administrative 
reform.  The  war  of  1877  took  place,  and  when  the  Con- 
gress of  Berlin  took  on  itself  the  settlement  of  eastern 
Europe,  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  placed  under  the 
administration  of  the  emperor  of  Austria,  though  they  still, 
nominally,  form  part  of  the  sultan's  dominions.  Austria 
has  placed  over  them  a  military  governor,  and  has  garrisoned 
the  country  with  fifteen  thousand  men. 

So  few  travellers  are  attracted  to  these  provinces,  notwith- 
standing their  abundant  game  and  easy  access,  that  very 
little  is  known  about  their  present  condition.  It  is,  how- 
ever, reported  that  the  peasantry  are  very  unwilling  to 
submit  to  military  conscription.  Under  the  Turks  no 
Christian  could  be  a  soldier.  A  tax  was  laid  upon  all  male 
1  Cf.  London  Quarterly  Review. 


392     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X/XTH  CENTURY, 

Christians,  even  an  infant  in  arms,  as  a  substitute  for  mili- 
tary service. 

The  chief  town  of  Bosnia  is  Serajevo  (in  Turkish,  Bosna- 
Serai).  The  chief  towns  in  Herzegovina  are  Mostar  and 
Trebinje.  The  population  of  the  two  provinces  is  about 
one  and  a  half  million,  of  whom  less  than  one  third  are 
Mohammedans  who  appear  to  submit  quietly  to  Austrian 
rule.  They  have,  however,  forfeited  their  privileges  as  the 
dominant  race. 

The  Bulgarians  naturally  sympathized  with  their  fellow 
Christians  in  1875  and  1876,  and  we  know  already  how  the 
hearts  of  all  men  and  women  in  western  Europe  and 
America  were  stirred  by  accounts  of  the  atrocities  com- 
mitted by  Turkish  irregular  troops  and  by  Circassian  settlers 
in  Southern  Bulgaria.  The  war  of  1877  was  to  tne  Rus- 
sians a  Holy  War,  undertaken  on  behalf  of  their  fellow- 
Christians. 

When  peace  was  signed,  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano, 
Bulgaria  believed  herself  to  have  gained  her  freedom.  But 
she  was  disappointed.  The  Congress  of  Berlin  divided  her 
into  two  portions.  That  south  of  the  Balkans,  now  called 
Eastern  Roumelia,  remained  Turkish,  having,  however,  a 
Christian  governor.  That  north  of  the  Balkans  was  formed 
into  a  principality. 

The  Bulgars  are  said  to  have  been  a  Tartar  tribe  who 
settled  in  the  southern  part  of  Russia  in  the  fourth  century. 
Subsequently  they  moved  southward  to  the  shores  of  the 
Danube,  which  they  crossed  into  the  present  Bulgaria,  where 
they  planted  themselves  afresh  for  the  third  time.  They 
subdued  the  Slavonic  races  who  at  that  time  inhabited  the 
region,  and  became  a  powerful  people,  waging  cruel  wars 
with  the  Greek  emperors,  one  of  whom  after  a  victory  is 
said  to  have  put  out  the  eyes  of  fifteen  thousand  Bulgarian 
prisoners  in  one  day.  The  Emperor  Basil  drove  the  Bul- 
gars out  of  Macedonia  and  Epirus,  and  forced  them  back 
to  their  own  dominions  between  the  Danube  and  the  Bal- 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.      393 

kans ;  and  when  the  Turks  poured  over  the  lands  that 
acknowledged  the  Greek  emperor,  they  conquered  the 
Bulgarians,  who,  though  Christians,  were  of  a  kindred 
race. 

That  brilliant  writer  and  army  correspondent,  Mr.  Archi- 
bald Forbes,  draws  by  no  means  a  distressing  picture  of 
Bulgarians  under  Turkish  rule,  up  to  the  time  when  the 
massacres  of  1876  made  them  visible  as  an  oppressed  race 
to  the  eyes  of  the  western  world  :  — 

"  Taxed  they  were,"  he  says,  "  no  doubt  heavily  and  arbi- 
trarily, but  they  prospered.  Annoyed,  too,  they  must  frequently 
have  been  by  some  Turkish  zaptieh  (or  policeman)  and  the 
Circassian  settlements  were  from  the  first  a  heavy  grievance  to 
an  industrious  population.  The  country,  under  Turkish  rule, 
could  hardly  be  said  to  be  governed.  As  long  as  things  went 
on  quietly,  the  dominion  of  the  dominant  race  acknowledged, 
and  taxes  quietly  paid,  the  Bulgarians  were  not  much  molested 
by  the  Ottomans.  They  had  plenty  of  churches,  they  were 
allowed  to  ring  their  bells.  Their  greatest  grievance  was  that 
their  bishops  were  despatched  to  them  from  Constantinople, 
and  were  not  in  accord  with  their  flocks,  even  in  creed,  for  the 
Bulgarians  inclined  to  Pravo-Slavism.  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
that  all  was  smooth  and  pleasant  for  the  Bulgarians,  or  indeed 
for  any  of  the  Christian  races  of  which  the  population  of 
Turkey  in  Europe  is  made  up ;  but  their  lot,  from  all  that  I 
have  been  able  to  learn,  was  tolerable  enough.  I  think  a 
Devonshire  laborer,  with  his  nine  shillings  a  week  and  a  few 
mugs  of  cider,  would  cheerfully  have  put  up  with  the  zaptieh, 
exclusion  from  the  management  of  public  affairs,  and  even  with 
debarment  from  military  service,  for  the  sake  of  the  rich  acres 
of  pasture  and  barley  land,  the  cattle,  and  broad  acres  of  the 
rural  Bulgarian." 

But  there  is  no  doubt  that  when  Servia  was  at  war  with 
Turkey,  and  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  in  revolt,  the 
Bulgarians  were  stimulated  to  plot  against  their  Turkish 
masters.  Then  came  the  massacres  in  Southern  Bulgaria, 
the  intervention  of  Russia,  and  the  war. 

At  the  Congress  of  Berlin  the  Powers  agreed  on  Prince 
Alexander  of  Battenberg  as  Prince  of  Bulgaria,  and  the 


394     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXi"  CENTURY. 

sultan  gave  his  assent.  It  was  also  agreed  that  no  inter- 
ference with  the  affairs  of  Turkey  or  of  the  Danubian  States 
should  be  permitted  to  one  Power,  unless  the  others  sanc- 
tioned what  was  done,  or  co-operated  in  it. 

Alexander  of  Battenberg  was  one  of  four  brothers,  the 
others  being  Prince  Henry,  Prince  Louis,  and  Prince  Francis 
Joseph.  Their  father  was  a  prince  of  Hesse,  uncle  to  the 
present  Prince  Louis  of  Hesse-Darmstadt.  He  made  a 
morganatic  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  a  waiwode,  or 
nobleman  in  Austrian  Poland.  The  lady  was  made  princess 
of  Battenberg,  and  her  sons,  by  courtesy,  had  the  title  of 
prince.  The  emperor  of  Germany  and  his  great  chancellor 
were  much  opposed  to  the  pretensions  of  this  left-handed 
branch  of  the  House  of  Hesse.  Not  so  Queen  Victoria; 
and  the  empress  of  Russia,  who  had  been  born  a  princess 
of  Hesse- Darmstadt,  was  disposed  to  favor  her  young  con- 
nection, Prince  Alexander,  and  in  her  will  left  him  a  con- 
siderable sum. 

The  choice  of  the  Congress  was  not,  however,  agreeable 
to  the  Emperor  Alexander  II.,  though  he  acquiesced  in  it ; 
but  Russia  thought  it  hard  that,  after  all  the  blood  and 
treasure  she  had  expended  for  Bulgaria,  her  candidate  for 
the  honor  of  ruling  it  —  Prince  Dondoukoff- Koursakoff  — 
was  not  even  considered.  However,  this  prince,  who  was 
then  provisional  governor  of  Bulgaria,  said  openly  that,  if 
he  was  not  chosen  to  govern  the  country,  he  was  going  to 
make  the  Bulgarians  adopt  a  constitution  under  which 
nobody  else  could.  Accordingly  he  drew  up  for  them  the 
scheme  of  an  ultra-democratic  constitutional  government, 
which  to  a  people  who  did  not  know  how  to  use  political 
privileges,  was  very  embarrassing.  It  is  said,  however,  that 
the  Bulgarians  and  their  ruler  got  over  the  difficulty  by 
paying  the  constitution  as  little  attention  as  possible. 

It  is  believed  that  Prince  Alexander,  whose  appointment 
was,  as  it  were,  forced  upon  Russia,  displeased  the  Emperor 
Alexander  and  his  people  from  the  first,  by  showing  too 
little  gratitude  for  what  Russia  had  done  for  Bulgarians, 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.      395 

and  by  discountenancing  the  expression  of  such  gratitude 
on  the  part  of  his  subjects.  Others  say  that  as  long  as 
Alexander  II.  lived,  Alexander  of  Bulgaria  was  on  good 
terms  with  the  court  of  Russia  (indeed  he  was  one  of  the 
imperial  dinner  party  at  St.  Petersburg  on  the  day  of  the 
explosion  at  the  Winter  Palace)  ;  but  undoubtedly  when 
Alexander  III.  came  to  the  throne  a  positive  personal  ani- 
mosity soon  showed  itself  on  his  part  to  his  morganatic 
cousin. 

Prince  Alexander  was  a  handsome  man,  of  powerful  but 
not  ungraceful  build ;  his  bearing  was  military,  and  his  fea- 
tures finely  chiselled.  His  manners,  also,  were  courteous 
and  polite.  The  Bulgarians,  by  way  of  showing  apprecia- 
tion of  their  first  independent  ruler,  erected  for  him  in  the 
late  Turkish  Quarter  of  Sofia,  his  capital,  a  palace  of  a 
somewhat  novel  kind.  It  is  a  rudely  constructed,  one- 
storied  building,  "  differing  little  from  other  houses  in  Sofia, 
save  in  respect  to  superior  cleanliness."  The  furniture  was 
simple  and  tasteful,  though  not  princely.  The  house  con- 
tained three  sitting-rooms,  a  reception-room,  a  study,  and 
the  prince's  bedroom.  At  the  back  of  the  courtyard  were 
two  servants'  rooms,  an  apartment  for  the  Secretary  of 
State,  and  the  stables.  There  were  four  servants,  all  of 
them  males  and  Germans,  whom  the  prince  had  brought 
with  him  from  his  own  country.  There  was,  besides,  the 
hall-porter,  and  a  Montenegrin  attendant,  —  a  martial  figure 
with  a  fiercely  curled  moustache.  The  prince's  aides-de- 
camp were  his  old  comrades,  and  a  friend  of  his  boyhood 
was  his  private  secretary. 

I  have  dwelt  upon  these  details  because  they  have  some 
bearing  on  the  subsequent  history  of  Prince  Alexander. 

Sofia  is  the  capital  of  Bulgaria;  Philippopolis  that  of 
Eastern  Roumelia.  By  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano  these  two 
parts  of  Bulgaria  had  been  united  into  one  autonomous 
State.  When  this  arrangement  was  set  at  naught  by  the 
Berlin  Congress  all  the  Bulgarians  had  been  bitterly  dis- 
appointed, and  on  September  18,  1885,  a  quiet  revolution 


396    RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  X1X?'H  CENTURY. 

was  effected  at  Philippopolis,  by  which  the  inhabitants  of 
Eastern  Roumelia  threw  off  the  Turkish  administration  and 
put  themselves  under  the  prince  of  Bulgaria. 

Prince  Alexander  had  not  intrigued  for  this  result ;  indeed 
it  embarrassed  him,  and  complicated  an  already  difficult 
situation.  He  received  the  news  when  on  his  model  farm 
near  Varna,  and  at  once  set  out  in  a  light  open  carriage  to 
see  things  at  Philippopolis  for  himself.  By  travelling  night 
and  day  he  reached  that  place  in  forty-eight  hours,  having 
made,  over  rough  roads,  five  hundred  miles.  He  took  the 
helm  of  government  at  once,  and  before  night  great  satis- 
faction reigned  in  the  capital  of  his  new  dominions.  But 
the  emperor  of  Russia  was  indignant.  He  was  willing  to 
protect  and  patronize  the  Bulgarians  and  Roumelians,  but 
not  their  prince.  It  was  not  his  wish  to  see  a  strong  State, 
whose  public  feeling  was  opposed  to  Russian  interests,  built 
up  between  the  Danube  and  Constantinople.  Moreover, 
when  the  other  Powers  held  him  strictly  to  the  observance 
of  the  provisions  of  the  Berlin  Treaty,  it  was  exasperating  to 
see  those  provisions,  in  six  years,  set  at  naught  by  so  puny 
a  power  as  Bulgaria. 

Abdul  Hamid,  influenced  by  England,  and  by  his  own 
strong  desire  for  peace  (so  necessary,  as  he  conceived  it, 
to  foster  his  plans  of  reform),  acquiesced  in  the  new  dispo- 
sition of  Eastern  Roumelia ;  but  the  moment  the  news 
reached  Servia,  King  Milan  laid  claim  to  two  districts  in 
Bulgaria,  which  he  said  were  peopled  by  Slavs,  and  ought, 
if  Bulgaria  enlarged  her  borders,  to  be  annexed  to  his  do- 
minions. At  once  he  declared  war  on  Bulgaria.  The 
campaign  lasted  about  a  week,  and  was  conducted  with 
great  ability  by  Prince  Alexander.  The  Servians  were  de- 
feated at  the  battle  of  Slivnitza,  and  pursued  into  their  own 
territory.  Then  Germany,  Austria,  Russia,  and  Turkey 
intervened  and  forced  an  armistice,  Austria  threatening  to 
take  part  in  the  war  if  the  Bulgarians  advanced  into  Servia, 
and  Russia  to  invade  Bulgaria. 

Prince  Alexander  could  not  do  otherwise  than  bow  to  the 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.    397 

will  of  the  superior  Powers ;  but  his  own  people,  proud  of 
the  success  of  their  little  army,  saw  in  their  prince  a  military 
hero,  while  the  Servians  resented  the  conduct  of  their  king. 
Prince  Alexander  returned  to  his  capitals,  Sofia  and  Philip- 
popolis,  outwardly  a  triumphant  conqueror,  but  inwardly 
perplexed  and  discouraged. 

We  have  seen  how  according  to  the  "  will  "  of  Peter  the 
Great  it  was  recommended  that  Russia  should  keep  polit- 
ical missionaries  in  foreign  capitals,  and  among  Slav  popu- 
lations, to  create  Russian  feeling,  and  promote  Russian 
plans.  Such  an  agent  was  M.  Zankoff.  His  mission  in 
Bulgaria  was  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  make  the  task  of 
government  so  difficult  that  the  reign  of  Prince  Alexander 
might  end  in  confusion  and  abdication.  With  Zankoff  was 
associated  a  General  Kaulbars. 

Prince  Alexander  had  been  faithful  to  Russian  interests 
at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  but  when  he  had  to  choose 
between  being  a  mere  vassal  of  Russia  or  incurring  her 
enmity  he  took  the  side  of  his  people.  The  prince  was 
aware  of  the  intrigues  carried  on  against  him  in  his  capital, 
but  declined  to  take  any  extreme  measures  against  the  Rus- 
sian conspirators,  saying  that  there  must  be  an  opposition  in 
every  country,  and  that  it  was  better  to  let  the  very  small 
sore  remain  open  than  by  severity  to  drive  the  canker  in- 
wards. 

To  appreciate  the  situation  we  must  remember  that  the 
Bulgarians  have  been  for  centuries  a  nation  of  slaves.  They 
are  a  people,  thrifty,  industrious,  cheerful,  and  well  capable 
of  taking  care  of  their  own  material  interests,  but  so  jealous 
of  any  dictation  from  foreigners,  or  interference  with  their 
affairs,  that  to  this  day  they  will  not  suffer  any  one  but  a 
Bulgarian  to  make  their  railroads  or  even  to  invest  in 
them. 

They  had  been  provided  by  Prince  Dondoukoff-Kour- 
sakoff  with  a  complicated  and  unworkable  constitution,  and 
they  and  their  prince  were  left  to  struggle  with  it  as  best 
they  might.  For  eight  years  the  government  went  on  in  a 


398      RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIX*  u  CENTURY. 

sort  of  happy-go-lucky  fashion,  which  would  have  been  en- 
tirely satisfactory  to  all  parties  had  the  Bulgarians  been  let 
alone.  But  Russian  agents  were  at  work  and  had  command 
of  Russian  money.  These  missionaries  are  in  no  way 
accredited  agents  of  their  government.  If  they  succeed 
they  will  have  served  their  country ;  if  they  fail  they  will  be 
discredited  and  disavowed. 

The  role  that  these  agents  took  up  in  Bulgaria  was  one  of 
advanced  liberalism.  Already  in  Servia  the  radicals  had 
been  the  Russian  party.  M.  Zankoff  represented  to  all  dis- 
contented spirits  that  Prince  Alexander  and  his  government 
were  continually  violating  the  constitution  ;  but  so  great  was 
the  prince's  popularity  after  his  victories  over  the  Servians 
that  it  was  a  common  joke  in  Sofia  that  the  Russian  party 
consisted  of  M.  Zankoff,  General  Kaulbars,  and  eight  others. 
A  conspiracy,  however,  against  Prince  Alexander  was 
secretly  matured,  and  this  Russian  nucleus  was  augmented 
by  officers  disappointed  of  promotion,  and  some  who  had 
personal  grievances.  Others  were  members  of  the  Russian 
consulate,  and  the  chief  bishop.  In  the  end  the  number 
of  the  conspirators  amounted  to  fifty.  When  all  was  ready 
the  minister  of  war,  who  was  one  of  those  concerned  in  the 
plot,  sent  the  prince's  body-guard  to  a  distance  and  substi- 
tuted a  regiment  whose  officers  had  been  gained  over. 

On  the  night  appointed,  August  2,  1886,  the  palace  and 
the  houses  of  Alexander's  chief  friends  were  surrounded. 
No  officer  slept  in  the  palace,  which  was  guarded  by  a  few 
sentries  and  occupied  only  by  the  prince,  his  brother,  and 
their  servants.  Resistance  seeming  useless,  the  prince  sur- 
rendered when  he  found  revolvers  pointed  at  his  head. 
Some  of  the  officers  who  threatened  his  life  had  dined  at 
his  table  the  evening  before.  He  was  taken  to  the  office 
of  the  war  minister,  who  was  in  the  plot,  was  there  treated 
with  indignity,  and  forced  to  sign  his  abdication.  Subse- 
quently this  paper,  having  been  found  on  the  person  of  one 
of  the  conspirators,  was  restored  to  him. 

Before  daylight  Prince  Alexander  was  sent  under  escort 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.     399 

to  a  port  on  the  Black  Sea,  put  on  board  a  yacht  and  taken 
to  Reni  in  Russia.  During  his  journey  he  was  treated  like 
a  criminal,  and  when  he  reached  Russian  soil  his  treatment 
is  said  to  have  been  still  worse. 

Having  thus  kidnapped  the  prince,  the  Russian  party  in 
Sofia  seems  hardly  to  have  known  what  to  do  next.  They 
probably  waited  for  instructions  from  St.  Petersburg.  A 
telegram  arrived  assuring  them  that  the  czar  took  Bulgaria 
under  his  protection,  would  secure  immediately  its  reunion 
with  Eastern  Roumelia,  and  that  a  representative  of  the 
Russian  government  should  be  sent  to  Sofia  at  once.  But 
while  the  conspirators  waited  for  the  arrival  of  this  person- 
age the  Bulgarians  had  time  to  recover  from  their  astonish- 
ment. The  prince's  own  body-guard,  which  had  been  sent 
to  Slivnitza,  marched  back  to  Sofia,  and  recovered  the  capi- 
tal without  firing  a  shot.  The  army  and  the  people  de- 
clared everywhere  for  Prince  Alexander.  There  was  wild 
confusion  throughout  Bulgaria  and  Roumelia,  but  every- 
where popular  feeling  was  with  the  prince.  A  regency 
was  appointed,  and  what  might  happen  next  was  anxiously 
waited  for. 

Meantime  Prince  Alexander  had  been  liberated  and  sent 
over  the  Russian  frontier  into  Austrian  Poland.  At  Lemberg 
the  Austrian  officials  received  him  with  due  honor,  and 
there  he  learned  that  he  was  still  prince  of  Bulgaria,  his 
subjects  having  appointed  a  regency  to  await  his  return. 

Though  physically  exhausted  by  all  he  had  gone  through, 
he  set  out  the  next  day  for  Bulgaria,  and  on  his  arrival  in 
that  country  such  a  popular  reception  was  given  him,  as 
probably  never  was  accorded  to  a  prince  before.  His  peo- 
ple flocked  as  one  man  to  bid  him  welcome.  Never  was 
enthusiasm  more  general  or  joy  more  sincere.  Yet  on  his 
arrival  at  Sofia  he  made  known  his  purpose  of  renewing  his 
abdication.  Perhaps  he  was  hampered  by  some  promise 
made  during  his  captivity.  He  took  such  measures  as  he 
could  to  harmonize  the  different  parties  and  to  secure  peace 
and  order  in  the  country,  and  then  he  departed  amid  such 


4OO     RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

scenes  of  sorrow  among  the  people  and  the  army,  "  as  " 
says  an  eye-witness,  "can  never  be  forgotten." 

But  Prince  Alexander  seems  to  have  been  thoroughly 
disheartened  and  discouraged.  He  knew  that  Russia,  in- 
censed against  him  before,  would  be  more  his  enemy  than 
ever ;  Turkey  under  temporary  Russian  influence  seemed 
to  have  changed  her  policy ;  his  people,  loyal  as  they  were 
to  him,  were  apprehensive  of  the  end,  and  party  spirit  raged 
more  fiercely  than  before  his  abdication.  The  Russian 
party  was  now  bold  and  noisy,  denouncing  the  prince,  and 
predicting  his  speedy  overthrow.  Alexander  himself  was  in 
doubt  whom  he  could  trust  in  the  army,  and  among  those 
about  him. 

Some  Shakespeare  commentators  have  characterized 
Romeo  as  the  man  who  was  always  unlucky.  Luck  went 
against  him  at  every  opportunity.  Prince  Alexander  is  the 
Romeo  of  contemporary  history.  Before  he  left  Lemberg 
he  had  addressed  a  submissive  telegram  to  his  Russian 
cousin,  intimating  that  he  would  thenceforward  promote 
Russian  interests  if  let  alone.  This  telegram  had  no  results 
except  to  injure  his  position. 

He  abdicated,  believing  that  Bulgaria  must  succumb  to 
Russia ;  but  she  did  not  succumb.  She  sent  him  a  deputa- 
tion, after  he  had  reached  his  home  in  Darmstadt,  imploring 
him  to  reconsider  his  resolution  and  return.  When  he  gave 
an  emphatic  refusal  to  this  request,  she  elected  Prince 
Ferdinand  of  Coburg,  grandson  of  Louis  Philippe,  as  his 
successor. 

Prince  Ferdinand's  father  was  a  German  prince  and  an 
Austrian  officer ;  his  mother  was  the  wealthy  and  admirable 
Princess  Clementine. 

No  choice  probably  could  have  been  less  agreeable  to  the 
czar,  who  wanted  the  Bulgarians  to  choose  Prince  Nikita  of 
Mingrelia,  a  Caucasian  principality.  The  dislike  of  the 
Russian  court  to  King  Louis  Philippe  and  his  family  is  well 
known.  The  revolution  of  1830  destroyed  the  hopes  and 
plans  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  for  the  attainment  of  Con- 


PRINCE  FERDINAND  OF  BULGARIA. 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.     401 

stantinople.  Besides  this,  Prince  Ferdinand,  being  an  Aus- 
trian officer  and  accustomed  to  hold  personal  relations  with 
the  Austrian  court,  might  naturally  be  expected  to  favor 
Austrian  interests  when  they  should  come  into  collision  with 
those  of  Russia. 

It  was  in  September,  1887,  that  Prince  Ferdinand  arrived 
in  Sofia  to  assume  his  new  position.  Few  people  expected 
that  he  would  be  suffered  to  hold  it  long.  If  Prince  Alex- 
ander, tried,  and  beloved,  a  brilliant  general,  a  man  of 
mature  age,  and  of  seven  years'  experience  in  the  affairs  of 
Bulgaria,  had  abdicated  in  utter  discouragement,  how  could 
it  be  expected  that  Prince  Ferdinand,  who  so  far  as  the 
world  knew,  had  shown  no  marked  ability,  should  succeed, 
when  his  very  election  was  a  menace  to  Russia? 

"  I  do  not  envy  the  man  who  may  be  called  to  fill  the 
place  of  Prince  Alexander,"  wrote  an  old  resident  of  Con- 
stantinople when  the  choice  of  a  new  prince  was  yet  unmade. 
"  If  he  attempts  to  rule  in  the  interests  of  Bulgaria  he  will 
be  subjected  to  every  insult,  and  thwarted  at  every  step. 
If  he  is  simply  a  Russian  satrap  he  will  be  hated  by  his 
people." 

Nevertheless  Prince  Ferdinand  has  held  on  his  way  with- 
out any  more  violent  catastrophes  than  a  new  conspiracy 
which  ended  in  the  execution  of  a  Russian  agent,  and  the 
assassination  of  his  finance  minister.  He  has  been  prince 
of  Bulgaria  nearly  as  long  as  Prince  Alexander,  and  feels 
himself  sufficiently  secure  to  have  lately  taken  to  wife 
Princess  Maria  Louisa  of  Parma.  She  is  a  descendant  of 
the  elder  branch  of  his  mother's  family,  —  her  grandmother 
having  been  the  Princess  Louise,  sister  of  the  Comte  de 
Chambord. 

Prince  Ferdinand  has  been  fortunate  in  his  prime  min- 
ister, M.  Stambouloff,  who  was  president  of  the  provisional 
government  during  the  change  of  princes.  His  fortunes 
are  bound  up  with  those  of  Prince  Ferdinand,  for  whose 
acceptance  of  the  Bulgarian  throne  he  is  mainly  responsible. 
He  is  extremely  popular  in  the  country.  That  Russia  is 

26 


402     JRUSSIA  AND  TURKEY  IN  THE  XIXTH  CENTURY. 

bitterly  opposed  both  to  him  and  his  prince  is  probably  an 
additional  reason  why  they  are  beloved  by  the  Bulgarians. 
Nevertheless  the  bullet  that  killed  the  unfortunate  minister 
of  finance  had  been  aimed  at  M.  Stambouloff;  happily  for 
Bulgaria  it  killed  a  man  less  important  to  the  country. 

Bulgaria  has  now  her  railroads,  and,  in  the  language  of 
our  time  and  country,  "  seems  to  be  forging  ahead."  What 
may  be  in  store  for  her  no  man  can  know. 

Prince  Ferdinand  is  a  man  of  excellent  education,  far 
superior  to  that  inadequate  training  which  he  said  himself 
is  considered  sufficient  for  the  scions  of  royal  houses. 

Alexander  of  Battenberg  went  back  to  Hesse  where  he 
bought  himself  a  handsome  country-seat,  and  the  next 
thing  the  world  heard  of  him  was  in  connection  with  the 
sorrowful  scenes  that  took  place  round  the  death-bed  of 
the  Emperor  Frederic. 

The  Battenbergs  are  exceptionally  fine  young  men,  —  men 
of  a  pattern  it  is  hard  to  find  as  husbands  for  Protestant 
princesses.  Queen  Victoria,  who  likes  match-making,  has 
married  two  of  them  to  her  descendants,  one  to  her  daughter 
Princess  Beatrice,  another  to  her  granddaughter  the  child 
of  Princess  Alice  of  Hesse- Darmstadt,  and  it  had  been 
arranged  that  Prince  Alexander  should  marry  Princess 
Victoria,  the  second  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Frederic. 
They  had  been  engaged  some  time  and  it  was  supposed 
that  they  were  much  attached  to  each  other.  The  old 
Emperor  William  and  his  chancellor  Prince  Bismarck,  ex- 
ceedingly disapproved  the  match,  and  the  marriage  was 
postponed  until  the  parents  of  the  princess  should  have  full 
authority.  It  was  understood  that  if  the  dying  Emperor 
Frederic  lived  till  June,  the  young  people,  in  spite  of  Prince 
Bismarck,  should  be  married  by  his  death-bed.  But  the 
Emperor  Frederic  died  before  June  came,  and  Alexander's 
unlucky  star  prevented  his  marriage.  It  is  said  that  it  was 
not  so  much  the  czar's  political  objection  to  Prince  Alex- 
ander that  frustrated  the  match  as  the  extreme  personal 
dislike  felt  for  him  by  the  young  Emperor  William. 


THE  BALKAN  PRINCIPALITIES  AND  PROVINCES.     403 

However  that  may  be,  while  the  luckless  Alexander  was 
still  looked  upon  by  the  public  as  a  fascinating  and  accom- 
plished prince,  robbed  of  his  principality  by  the  animosity 
of  one  emperor,  and  of  his  bride  by  the  unreasonable 
prejudices  of  another,  one  fine  morning  he  destroyed  with 
his  own  hand  his  prestige  as  a  lover.  Again  he  descended 
from  his  pedestal  and  disappointed  his  admirers  by  marry- 
ing at  the  Prefecture  of  Mentone,  a  German  prima  donna, 
Madame  Loisinger,  daughter  of  a  game-keeper  in  the  service 
of  the  emperor  of  Austria. 

It  was  subsequently  reported  that  French  law  refused  to 
admit  the  validity  of  the  marriage,  as  the  prince  had  repre- 
sented himself  under  a  false  name  to  the  prefect  of  Mentone. 
It  has  also  been  reported  that,  the  marriage  not  having 
proved  satisfactory,  the  prince  has  separated  from  his  wife 
and  entered  the  Austrian  service  as  an  officer  of  cavalry. 

"  Chassez  croissez"  said  De  Morny  when  news  was 
brought  him  that  Cavaignac,  late  dictator  of  France,  was 
occuping  the  rooms  assigned  the  Prince-President  Louis 
Napoleon  when  prisoner  at  Ham.  And  a  similar  change 
of  places  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  the  lives  of  Prince 
Ferdinand  and  Prince  Alexander.  The  ex- Austrian  officer 
now  occupies  the  throne  of  the  prince ;  the  ex-prince  wears 
the  helmet  of  the  Austrian  officer.  Doubtless  it  sits  more 
easily  on  the  head  of  Alexander  than  on  that  of  Ferdinand 
does  the  princely  crown. 


404  NOTE   TO  CHAPTER  XIV. 


NOTE   TO   CHAPTER   XIV. 

RECENT  accounts  of  the  persecutions  of  American  mission- 
aries in  Armenia,  in  accordance  with  a  policy  that  apparently 
had  its  beginning  in  1884,  seem  hard  to  reconcile  with  the  char- 
acter of  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid,  as  he  is  described  by  all  who  have 
been  brought  into  personal  contact  with  him  in  Constantinople. 
Whether  these  persecutions  have  been  inspired  by  the  Russian 
government,  which,  in  1891,  instructed  its  consuls  in  Asiatic  Tur- 
key to  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of  missionary  educational  en- 
terprises, or  arise  from  the  sultan's  wish  to  keep  the  improved 
education  he  designs  for  his  subjects  in  his  own  hands ;  whether 
it  be  the  result  of  representations  made  to  the  Sublime  Porte  by 
unfriendly  pashas ;  or,  lastly,  whether  it  has  anything  to  do  with 
a  personal  peculiarity  of  the  sultan  himself,  —  who  can  say? 
The  personal  peculiarity  that  I  allude  to  is  a  disposition  some- 
what akin  to  the  cryptographic  mania  which  disturbed  the  world 
of  letters  in  the  case  of  Shakespeare.  The  sultan  finds  offence 
where  it  is  quite  impossible  offence  could  have  been  intended, 
and  an  idea  of  the  kind  once  having  been  entertained  can  never 
be  removed  from  his  mind.  A  clever  Turkish  writer,  having 
translated  the  "Avare"  of  Moliere,  gave  great  offence  by  be- 
stowing on  Harpagon  the  popular  name  in  Turkey  for  a  miser. 
This  name,  it  seems,  had  sometimes  been  bestowed  in  sport  on 
Abdul  Hamid  by  his  brothers.  Nothing  could  convince  him 
that  it  was  not  intended  as  an  insult;  and  on  his  accession  it  led 
at  once  to  the  disgrace  and  banishment  of  the  unfortunate  trans- 
lator. I  have  said  already  that  the  expression  "  servant  of  his 
people  "  ("  servant "  being  in  Turkish  synonymous  with  "  slave  ") 
poisoned  the  mind  of  the  sultan  against  followers  of  the  policy 
of  Midhat  Pasha;  and  in  the  missionary  schools  of  Armenia 
text-books  on  chemistry  were  suppressed  because  the  symbol 
H2O  (denoting  water)  was  supposed  to  indicate  that  Hamid  II. 
was  a  cipher. 

E.  W.  L. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


A. 


Aali  Pasha,  vizier,  201,  202,  208,  336. 
Abdurahman,  ameer  of  Afghanistan, 

316,  317,  318. 
Abdul  Aziz,  sultan,  199-206,  208,  210, 

215-222,  230,  337-341,  363. 
Abdul  Hamid  I.,  sultan,  68. 
Abdul   Hamid  II.,  sultan,  205,  208, 

228,  229,  230,  34i-356>  396.     His 

family,  353. 
Abdul  Medjid,  sultan,  104,  197,  198, 

199,  205. 
Adrianople,  82,  257,  258;  Treaty  of, 

82,92,215. 
Afghanistan,  313.  316. 
Akh  Pasha  (General  Skobeleff),  247, 

258. 

Aksakoff,  Ivan,  284,  296. 
Alexander  I.,  emperor,  16,  17,  18,  20- 

25,  27,  31,  70,  71,  83,  91,  92,  106. 
Alexander  II.,  emperor-liberator,  86, 

153,   154,    167-171,180-183,    193- 

196,  237,    251,  253,  254,    265-268, 

279,  326;  attempts  on  the  life  of, 

184,  185,  186,  268,  269,  270. 
Alexander   III.,  emperor,    182,    183, 

279-287,  289,  290,  291,   292,  300, 

321,  322,  325,  328,  329,  334,  357, 

379,  400 ;  family  of,  301,  302. 
Alexander  of   Battenberg,   prince   of 

Bulgaria,  270,   366,  393-400,   402, 

4°3- 
Alexander,     king    of     Servia,     368, 

369- 

Alexis,  son  of  Peter  the  Great,  12. 
Ali,  pasha  of  Jannina,  70. 


Alikhanoff,  318,  319. 

Allied  Armies  at  Gallipoli,  120,  121 ; 
at  Varna,  122-127 ;  reach  the  Cri- 
mea, 127-130 ;  on  the  flank  march, 
130;  before  Sebastopol,  130-159. 

Alma,  battle  of,  130,  134. 

Alp  Arslan,  44,  45. 

Amurath  I.,  sultan,  46,  51. 

Amurath  II.,  sultan,  55,  56,  57. 

Anna  Ivanovna,  empress,  13. 

Armenia,  354  ;  missionaries  in,  404. 


B. 

Bajazet  I.,  sultan  51-54. 

Bajazet  II.,  sultan,  65. 

Baker  Pasha  (Col.  Valentine),  319. 

Baku,  oil-wells  at,  319. 

Balaclava,  137,   138,   139;   battle  of, 

140-144. 

Balance  of  power,  114,  232,  233. 
Balkans,  233,  255. 
Baltic  Provinces,  (Livland  or  Livonia, 

Corn-land,   Esthland  or  Esthonia), 

323-328. 

Bashi-Bazouks,  237,  253,  335. 
Batoum,  320. 

Beckwith,  Colonel,  131,  132. 
Belgrade,  52,  57,  233,  363. 
Beloochistan,  317. 
Berlin,   Congress  of,    233,   258,   259, 

260,  357,  379,  381,  392,  393,  395- 
Bessarabia,  379. 
Biat,  215. 
Black  Sea,  128. 
Bokhara,  315. 


408 


INDEX. 


Boski,  railroad  accident  in   Southern 

Russia  at,  321,  322. 
Bosquet,  General,  145,  156. 
Bosnia,  211,  233-236;  history  of,  365, 

388-392. 

Boucicault,  Sieur  de,  52,  53. 
Boyard,  372. 
Bozzaris,  Marco,  76,  83. 
Brailow,  siege  of,  80. 
Brandes,  George,  quoted,  284. 
Broniec,  Marshal,  28. 
Bucharest,  246,  377  ;  Treaty  of,   69, 

80. 
Bulgaria,   228,   233,    234,    236,    237, 

392-403- 
Bulgars,  392. 
Burial  certificate,  235. 
Burnaby,    Capt.,  his   ride  to  Khiva, 

3'3»  314. 

Butler,  Capt.,  122. 
Byron,  George,  Lord,  76,  77. 


C. 

Caimacan,  371. 

Catherine  I.,  empress,  12,  13. 

Catherine  II.,  empress,  13,  14. 

Canning,  George,  77. 

Canning,  Sir  Stratford  (Lord  Strat- 
ford de  Redclyffe),  109,  no. 

Canrobert,  145,  155,  156,  157. 

Capoleone,  Doctor,  208,  217,  228, 
230,  231. 

Carmen  Sylva,  see  Elizabeth,  queen 
of  Roumania. 

Cattaro,  383,  385. 

Caucasus,  94. 

Cattinje,  381,  385. 

Chancelor,  Sir  Richard.  10. 

Charles  of  Hohenzollern,  king  of 
Roumania,  375,  376,  379,  403. 

Charge   of  the  Heavy   Brigade,    141, 

«43- 

Charge   of  the   Light   Brigade,    140- 

'43- 

Charlotte  of  Prussia,  wife  of  Em- 
peror Nicholas,  85,  86,  100,  101. 

Chlapowski,  general  and  dictator,  29, 

36,  37,  39- 

Cholera,  37,  125,  126,  127,  129,  131. 
Circassia,  94. 


Circassians,  236,  237,  335. 
Cochrane,  Capt.  Lord  (Earl  of  Dun- 

donald),  76. 
Codrington,  Admiral  Sir  Edward,  79, 

80. 
Constantine,  Grand  Duke,  14,  18,  26- 

37,  86. 
Constantine  Palseologos,  emperor,  58- 

62. 
Constantinople,  52,54,  58-625  82,  in, 

260;  why  coveted  by   Russia,  105, 

106. 
Coronation  of  Nicholas  I.,  33,  34  ;  of 

Alexander  II.,  183,184;   of  Alex- 
ander III.,  284-290. 
Cox,  Hon.  S.  S.,  ambassador,  quoted, 

347-353,  356. 

Couza,  John  Alexander,  hospodar  of 
Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  372,  373, 

374- 

Cracow,  97,  101. 

Crimea,  24. 

Crimean  War,  begun,  110-114,  116; 
rendezvous  at  Gallipoli,  120-121 ; 
armies  sail  for  Varna,  122  ;  sail  for 
Crimea,  127,  128,  129;  landing  and 
flank  march,  129,  130;  hardships, 
137-140,  146,  147,  148,  159;  close 
of,  164;  results  of,  165,  166  ;  gen- 
erals in,  155,  156,  157  ; -Russia  after 
the,  165,  1 66. 

Crusades,  103. 

Cyprus,  260. 

Czartoriski,  Prince  Adam,  27,  39. 


D. 

Daghestan,  94. 

Dagmar,  Marie,  princess  of  Denmark, 

wife  of  Alexander  III.,  182,  301. 
Danilo,  prince  of  Montenegro,  380. 
Danube,  238  ;  passage  of,  245. 
Denmark,  queen  of,  297. 
Dickson,  Doctor,  221,  339. 
Diebitsch,  Marshal,  37,  80,  81,  82. 
Dolgorouka,  Princess,   183,  200,  267, 

272. 
Dolma-Baghtche"    Palace,    203,    206, 

209,  215,  350. 
Dondoukoff-Koursakoff,   Prince,  259, 

394,  397- 


INDEX. 


409 


Dorothea,  princess  of    Montbelliard, 

wife  of  Paul  I.,  14,  26. 
Ducas,  quoted,  61,  62. 
Dushan,  Stephen,  359. 


E. 

Edhem  Pasha,  204. 
Elizabeth  Petrovna,  empress,  13. 
Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  10,  n. 
Elizabeth,  princess    of    Wied,   queen 

of  Roumania  (Carmen  Sylva),  376- 

380. 
Elliot,    Sir   Henry,  ambassador,  206, 

quoted,  337-341- 
Emancipation  of  Russian  serfs,  171, 

172,     176,     177;     compared     with 

negro,    175,    176;    of  serfs  in  Es- 

thonia,  326. 
Eugene,  Prince,  67. 


F. 


Ferdinand    of    Hohenzollern,    crown 

prince  of  Roumania,  380. 
Ferdinand  of  Saxe-Coburg,  prince  of 

Bulgaria,  400,  401,  402. 
Finland,  17,  200,  201,  202,  205,  208, 

326. 
Forbes,  Archibald,  quoted,  251,  252, 

253.  393- 

Frederick  II.,  emperor,  86,  402. 
France,  40,  41,  69,  91,  92. 
Fuad  Pasha,  vizier,   201,    202,  208, 

336. 


G. 

Galitzin,  Princess  and  Prince  Dimitri, 

24. 

Gallipoli,  120,  121. 
Geok  Tepi,  261,  318. 
George,  king  of  Greece,  83. 
George,  Grand  Duke,  289. 
Georgia,  94. 
Gladstone,  Mr.,  quoted,  266,  381,  382, 

383- 

Goldenberg,  assassin,  268. 
Gorgey,  General,  102. 


Gortaloff,  Major,  244,  245,  246. 
Gortschakoff,  Prince,  133,  315,  316. 
Gourko,  General,  250. 
Greece,  23,  70,  82,  83  ;  revolution  in 

70-76,  80,  82,  83. 
Greek  and  Latin  churches  ;  attempt 

to  unite  them,  55,  56. 
Gregorius,  Patriarch,  murdered,  72. 
Grudzinski,  Count,  28. 
Grudzinska,  Janetta,  princess  of  Lo- 

wicz,  wife  of  Grand  Duke  Constan- 

tine,  28,  29,  30,  33-38. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden, 

325-. 

Gustiniani,  Gian,  59,  61. 
Gwilt,  Colonel,  158. 


H. 

Hairullah  Effendi,  sheik-ul-Islam,  211, 

213,  217,  218,  228,  229. 
Harold  Hardrada,  9. 
Hartman,  269,  270,  274. 
Hassan  Bey,  223-228. 
Hastings,  Captain  Frank,  76. 
Helfman,  Hesse,  277,  278,  280. 
Henry  IV.,  Shakespeare's,  55. 
Herat,  313,  316-319. 
Herzegovina,    211,    228,    233,    234; 

history  of,  388-392. 
Hetairists,  22,  23,  70,  71. 
Holy  Alliance,  18,  23,  70,  71. 
Holy  places,  104,  105,  109. 
Hospodar,  371. 
Howe,  Dr.  S.  G.,  77. 
Hungary,  101,  102. 
Hunniades,  56. 
Hussein  Avni,  211-214,  216,  217,  221, 

222,  223,  225,  226,  227. 


Ibrahim  Pasha,  79,  93. 

Ignatieff,  General,  209,  280,  282,  300, 

331,  335- 

India,  43,  44,  315,  316. 
Inkerman,  first  battle  of,  144;  second 

battle  of,  144. 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  10,  u,  324,  325. 


4io 


INDEX. 


Janissaries,  46-49,  58,  69,  77,  78. 
Jassy,  70,  373. 

Jews,  persecuted,  291,  323,  328-334. 
Juliana,     princess     of    Saxe-Coburg, 

wife  of  Grand  Duke  Constantine, 

26,  27. 


K. 

Kaiserli,  213,  217,  225,  226. 

Kanaris,  76,  83. 

Kashgar,  315. 

Kara,  George,  359-362. 

Karageorgevitch  family,  362,  363,  364, 

386. 
Kars,  first  siege  of,  164;  second  siege 

of,  271. 

Katkoff ,  journalist,  280,  282. 
Kaulbars,  397. 
Kennan,   Mr.,  303,  304 ;  quoted,  306, 

3°7- 

K6ratry,  Count  E.  de,  197,  356. 
Khanates,  314. 
Khiva,  314,  3(5. 
Kinglake,   Mr.,  quoted,  106,  112,  113, 

i2&,  130,  131,  134. 
Kingston,  Mr.  W.  Beatty,  quoted,  362, 

363.  374,  375»  376,  378,  379- 
Krapotkin,  Prince,  268. 
Kremlin,  284,  287. 
Kriidener,  Madame  de,  Barbara  Julie 

von  Wielinghoff,  18-24. 


Ladislas,  king  of  Hungary  and  Poland, 

56,  57,  58. 
JLanin,  Mr.  E.  B.,  quoted,  297,  298, 

299,  328. 

La  Valette,  Marquis  de,  104,  105. 
Leopold,  king  of  the  Belgians,  Queen 

Victoria's  letters  to,  98,  99,  100,  113, 

114. 

Liprandi,  General,  140. 
Lowicz,  Princess,  see  Grudzinska. 


M. 

Mahmoud  II.,  sultan,  68,  69,  70,  72, 

77-8o,  93,  197,  199. 
Malakoff  and  Redan  attacked  June  18, 

1855,  158  ;  evacuated,  Sept.  5,  160- 

164. 

Mamelon,  157. 
Marie,  princess  of  Darmstadt,  wife  of 

Alexander  II.,  169,  183,  269,  272. 
Mantza,  story  of,  75,  76. 
Mavroyeni,  Doctor,  208,  351. 
Mehemet  AH,  khedive,  69,  70,  78. 
Mehemet  Rescind  Effendi,  353. 
Melikoff,   Loris,   271,  272,  273,   280, 

281. 
Mentzikoff,  Prince,  108, 109,  130,  131, 

133,  '39,  HO,  154- 
Merv,  318,  319. 
Metternich,  Prince,  108. 
Michael  Obrejiovitch,  prince  of  Servia, 

S62,  363,  364,  365- 

Midhat  Pasha,  211,  212,  213,  217,  224, 
225,  226,  336,  337,  338,  343. 

Milan,  king  of  Servia,  364-370. 

Millingen,  Doctor,  339. 

Milosch,  Obrenovitch,  prince  of  Ser- 
via, 361,  362-367. 

Mingrelia,  94. 

Mir,  172,  173,  174,  178,  179,  180,  304, 
3°5>  3°7>  308. 

Mohammed  II.,  58,  59,  60-65. 

Mohammed,  Nedim  Pasha,  208,  211, 
212,  335. 

Moldavia,  32,  65,  71,  92,  93,  233. 

Montenegro,  history  of,  381-385  ;  ad- 
venture in,  386,  387,  388. 

Morny,  Due  de,  183,  184,  403. 

Murad  V.,  ex-sultan,  201,  203-209 
212-218,  222,  223,  228-231,  350. 


N. 
Napier,  Admiral  Sir  Charles,  112,  114, 

Napoleon  I.,  15,  16,   17,   18,  39,  83, 

260. 
Napoleon  III.,  105,  109,  112, 159,167, 

168,  185,  186,  375,  385. 
Nasmyth,  Captain,  122. 


INDEX. 


411 


Natalie  de  Keczko,  wife  of  King  Milan 

of  Servia,  365-368,  370. 
Navarino,  battle  of,  79,  80. 
Nesselrode,  Count,  no. 
Nicholas  I.,  emperor,  32,  33,   85-89, 

9T»  92>  93>  96-IOO»  Io6>  I07>  I22» 
123,  151,  152,  153,  167-169,  187; 
children  of,  101. 

Nicholas,  czarevitch,  son  of  Alexan- 
der II.,  169,  182,  185. 

Nicholas,  czarevitch,  son  of  Alexan- 
der III.,  301,  322. 

Nightingale,  Miss  Florence,  and  hos- 
pitals, 148,  149,  158,  159. 

Nihilism,  155,  267-281,  290,  291,  294, 
310,  311 ;  Nihilists,  26,  155, 186-190, 
290,  291 ;  quotations  from  Nihilist 
writings,  187,  188,  109. 

Nikita,  prince  of  Mingrelia,  400. 

Nikita,  prince  of  Montenegro,  385, 
386 ;  his  wife  and  children,  386. 

Nisi  Novgorod,  9,  20. 

Nizam,  79,  81. 

Norsemen,  9. 


O. 

Obrenovitch,  Milosch,  and  his  family, 

361,  362-367. 
Oliphant,  Laurence,  134;  quoted,  123, 

124,  181,  386,  387,  388. 
Omar  Pasha,  116,  121  ;  visit  of   the 

generals  to,  123,  124. 
Orkhan,  45,  46,  50,  51. 
Osman  Pasha,  243,  248,  250,  366. 
Otho,  king  of  Greece,  82. 
Othman,  45  ;  sword  of,  216,  342. 
Ottoman  Empire,  45,  46,  54,  68,  83, 

84. 
Oxus,  313,  314. 


P. 

Padishah,  348. 

Palaeologos,  John,  50,  51;  John  II., 
55,  58;  Manuel,  55,  56;  Constan- 
tine,  58-62  ;  the  renegade,  64. 

Pamirs,  322,  323. 

Pan-Slavism,  259,  261,  295,  296,  357, 
358. 


Paropamisus  range,  316,  319. 
Paskievitch,  Marshal,  29,  40,  80,  93, 

95,  121, 122. 

Paul  I.,  emperor,  13,  14,  15,  16. 
P61issier,  General,  Duke  of  Malakoff, 

118,  119,  157. 

Perovskya,  Sophia,  269,  276,  278-280. 
Persia,  Russia's  war  with,  93. 
Pestel,  89. 
Peter  the  Great,  9,  u,  12,  325,  326; 

will  of,  89,  90,  91. 
Peter  II.  and  Peter  III.,  13. 
Peter  the  Poet,  prince  of  Montenegro, 

383,  384- 
Peter  the  Saint,  prince  of  Montenegro, 

363- 

Philippopolis,  396. 
Plevna,  243,  244,  247,  248. 
Poland,  17,  18,  27,326;  revolution  in 

1831,  34-41,  JOT  ;   rising  of  1863, 

181. 

Pomacks,  335. 
Pozzo  di  Borgo,  91,  92, 
Prob6donostzeff,  minister,  298,  334. 


Quetta,  317. 

Queen  Victoria,  visit  of  Emperor 
Nicholas,  97-100 ;  sees  the  Guards 
start  for  the  Crimea,  113;  reviews 
the  Fleet,  rejoices  over  the  victory 
of  the  Alma,  133  ;  sees  General  Can- 
robert  in  Paris,  157;  distributes 
Crimean  medals,  165. 


R. 


Radetsky,  General,  250,  256. 
Raglan,  Lord   (Lord  Fitzroy  Somer- 
set), 112,    117,    119-124,  128,  132, 

137,  i5J>  X57>  T58>  J59- 
Randolph,  Sir   Thomas,  ambassador, 

II, 

Razumoffsky,  Alexis,  13. 
Rhodes,  siege  of,  64 ;    second  siege, 

65,  66. 

Romanoffs,  IT,  85,  87. 
Rose,  Mr.  W.  Kinnaird,  quoted,  240, 

242,  243,  256. 


412 


INDEX. 


Roumania,  370-381 ;  religion  in,  371, 
372. 

Roumanians  in  the  War  of  1877,  378. 

Roumelia,  233,  366,  395,  396. 

Ruchdi  Pasha,  minister  for  foreign 
affairs,  211,  212,  217,  225,  228. 

Russia,  9,  85,  174,  175,  180 ;  prophe- 
cies concerning,  43,  63,  103,  108,  251, 
237;  policy  of,  107,  1 08  ;  present 
plan  of  government  in,  291-294. 

Russian  hatred  to  Turks,  168;  inva- 
sions of  Turkey,  80,  81,  in,  238; 
landed  proprietor,  a,  193-196;  liber- 
alism, 398;  names,  238  ;  officers  and 
soldiers,  251,  252,  321  ;  population, 
294  ;  public  opinion,  294,  295,  296  ; 
railroads,  193,  306,  307,  313,  314, 
320,  321 ;  rural  government  of,  178, 
179,  180 ;  sects  in,  191,  192. 

Russia  after  the  Crimean  War,  165, 
166,  167. 

Russia  after  the  Turkish  War,  266, 
267. 


S. 


Saint-Arnaud,  Marshal  Achille  de 
(Jacques  Leroy),  117,  118,  119,  121, 
123,  124,  127,  128,  129,  140,  145, 
146. 

Salonika,  72,  237. 

San  Stefano,  Treaty  of,  258,  260,  395. 

Samarcand,  313,  319. 

Sardinians,  156,  159,  165. 

Scanderbeg  (Alexander  Castriot),  58. 

Schamyl,  95-97. 

Scio,  73,  74,  75,  204. 

Sebastopol,  25,  125,  126;  attempt  to 
give  plan  of,  135,  136;  fleet  de- 
stroyed, 136,  137  ;  life  in,  during 
the  siege,  154;  scene  during  brief 
truce,  157,  158;  evacuation  of,  162, 
163,  164. 

Sedgwick,    Miss    Catherine,    quoted, 

73-75- 

Selamick,  216. 

Seljouk  Turks,  44. 

Senova,  battle  of,  255,  256. 

Sergius,  Grand  Duke,  291,  301. 

Servia,  67,  228,  233,  237,  238;  its  his- 
tory, 359-370. 


Severnaya,  162,  163. 

Seymour,  Sir  Hamilton,  106,  107. 

Shipka  Pass,  255,  256. 

Shumla,  80;  visit  of  generals  to,  123, 

124. 

Siberia,  306,  307,  308. 
Siberian  exiles,  192,   193,   267,  304- 

312. 

Silistria,  121,  122. 
Simpson,  General  James,  159. 
Sinope,  in,  112. 
Skobeleff,   General  Mikhail   Dimitri- 

vitch,  238-250,   253-264,  315,  316, 

318. 
Skobeleff,   General    Dimitri    Nicolai- 

vitch,  238,  239,  254,  261. 
Slavs,  358,  359,  371,  372. 
Slavophils,  295,  327. 
Slivnitza,  396. 
Sofia,  395. 
Softas,  211,  216. 
Solyman  the  Magnificent,  sultan,  65, 

66. 
Stambouloff,   M.,  prime  minister  in 

Bulgaria,  401. 

Stratford  de  Redclyffe,  Lord,  see  Can- 
ning. 
Suwarroff,  Marshal,  15,  26. 


T. 

Taganrog,  25. 

Tcheragan,  Palace,  218,  350. 

Tchernaya,  139,  159. 

Tekke  (Turcomans),  261,  315,  320. 

Tennyson,  143. 

Timour,  52,  53,  54. 

Todleben,    General,    140,    160,    246, 

250, 
Tolstoi,  Count  Dimitri,  minister,  273, 

3°4- 

Tolstoi,  Count  Lyof,  155 ;  quoted,  157, 
158,  160-164,  218. 

Top  Kapou  Palace,  217,  222,  350. 

Treaty  of  Bucharest,  69,  80  ;  of  Adri- 
anople,  82,  92 ;  of  Unkiar-Ske- 
lessi,  93;  of  Paris,  178;  of  San 
Stefano,  258 ;  of  Berlin,  259,  260. 

Trench,  Mrs., from  "Monthly  Packet," 
quoted,  285,  286-289. 


INDEX. 


413 


Trochu,  General  Jules,  128. 
Troubetskoi,  Prince,  87,  88. 
Turcomans,  see  Tekke. 
Turkish  Empire,  42,  66,  67  ;  race,  42, 

43»  44,  45,  233»  234,  235  \  fleets  de- 
stroyed, 79,  80,  in,  112;  parlia- 
ment, 343;  population,  84;  soldiers, 
67,  116,  117,354,3555  sultans,  49, 
65,  66,  67,  69 ;  viziers,  48 ;  when 
Crimean  War  began,  166. 

Turkestan,  260,  313,  320. 

Turks,  42-45,  103. 


U. 

Unkiar-Skelessi,  Treaty  of,  93,  in. 
Ural  mountains,  306;  railroad  over, 
306,  307. 


V. 

Valette,  Marquis  de  La,  105. 
Vamb6ry,   Arminius,  320,  344,  345  ; 

q^lOted,  320,  345,  346,  347. 
Varescovo,  Princess  Helene,  380. 
Varna,  80,  81,  122,  125,  127,  133. 
Verestchagen,  Alexander,  239;  quoted, 

239,  240,  241,  243,  255. 
Verona,  Congress  of,  23. 
Vicars,  Capt.  Hedley,  147. 
Victoria,  see  Queen  Victoria. 
Victoria,  Princess  of  Prussia,  403, 
Vienna,  66;  Congress  of,  17,  230,  231, 

38o,  383- 
Villages,  102. 

Vladimir,  Grand  Duke,  182,  302. 
Vladivostok,  307. 


W. 

Wallace,  Mr.  Mackenzie,  175  ;  quoted, 
176-179,  I93-I96- 

Wallachia,  22,  71,  92,  93,  233,  372; 
see  also  Koumania. 

Waterloo,  22. 

War,  Russia  with  Napoleon  I.,  15  ; 
with  Persia,  93 ;  with  Poland,  36 ; 
Crimean,  111-166;  in  the  Cau- 
casus, 95-97  ;with  Turkey,  238-259. 

Warsaw,  36,  38,  39,  40,  333. 

Woestyne,  Ivan  de,  quoted,  263,  264. 

William  I.,  William  II.,  emperors, 
86,  201. 

Witte,  300. 

Woronzoff,  Prince,  96,  97. 


X. 

Xenia,  Grand  Duchess,  286,  289,  301, 
321. 

Y. 

Yarkand,  315. 

Yildiz,  351. 

Ypsilanti,  Alexander,  22,  23,  70,  71. 

Yusef-Izzeddin,  201,  210,  351. 


Zankoff,  397. 
Zaptieh,  story  of  a,  235. 
Zelony  Gory,  247. 
Zemstvo,  178,  273,  282,  291. 
Zizim,  Prince,  65. 
Zouboff  brothers,  16. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(415)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


APR     9 


t    V»  f 


